GeneBank
Climate change, desertification, land degradation and a host of other factors threaten to impact the productivity and resilience of crops in the drylands, with severe consequences for food security. Evaluating germplasm for traits of economic importance and using them in crop improvement programs with the help of modern tools can stave off hunger and preserve crop diversity for the future.
ICRISAT Genebank: http://genebank.icrisat.org
Interventions
- Management of genebanks in India, Niger, Kenya and Zimbabwe, with more than 120,000 germplasm accessions from 144 countries
- Responsible for conserving and evaluating the germplasm.
Impacts
- Identified germplasm with new sources of tolerance to drought, salinity, heat and water logging, disease resistance, early maturity, high yield, seed size, and quality (oil, protein, iron, zinc, calcium).
- > 1.4 million samples of nearly 100,600 germplasm accessions shared with collaborators in 145 countries
- > 800 varieties in 79 countries released by national partners using germplasm and breeding lines from ICRISAT
- From 1976 to 2014, 225 improved varieties of sorghum (43), pearl millet (85), chickpea (43), pigeonpea (23) and groundnut (31) have been released by Indian partners (using breeding material from ICRISAT), raising production and incomes of smallholder farmers
- 41,796: National germplasm accessions repatriated by ICRISAT to the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), India.
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