FAO’s first Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources, prepared in 1996 from more than 150 country reports, identified a number of serious gaps and inefficiencies in the conservation and utilization of these resources.

Diversity is being lost in both the fields and forests of rural people and in genebanks, where it should be safe.

Linkages between conservation of plant genetic resources and their development and use by plant breeders and farmers are weak.

The benefits of one of the world’s most basic and valuable resources are thus not fully realized or shared.