Impact

The measure of trends in ex situ conserved materials provides an overall assessment of the extent to which we are managing to maintain and/or increase the total genetic diversity available for future use and thus protect it from any permanent loss of genetic diversity which may occur on-farm and in the natural habitat. 

This information is key to support the livelihood of the world's population with sufficient, diverse and nutritious diets long into the future. 

Key results

While global crop and crop-associated diversity has continued to increase, this growth has continued to slow down over time

At the end of 2024, about 6 million plant germplasm accessions were conserved under medium- or long-term conditions in 902 gene banks in 118 countries and 17 regional and international research centres. This estimate is based on updated reports from 59 countries and 4 research centres, representing 58 percent of total holdings, and on reports from recent years for the remaining countries and centres.

While global crop and crop-associated diversity has continued to increase, this growth has also continued to slow down over time, dropping to 0.5 percent in 2023 and 0.1 percent in 2024. As such, it is considerably lower than the annual average of the past 29 years (3.2 percent). The largest germplasm acquisitions by gene banks during 2023–2024 were reported in Western Asia (35 percent of new global acquisitions), Eastern Asia (16 percent), Eastern Africa and South America (14 percent each). These new acquisitions consisted mainly of farmers’ varieties (37 percent) and population samples of crop wild relatives and wild food plants (22 percent).

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Methodology

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Data

Data collection

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