The National Genebank maintains collections of plant genetic resources with the aim of conserving them, preserve their characteristics and make them available for future use for the benefit of both mankind and the environment. The National Genebank conserves these extremely valuable resources, which are sources of genetic diversity and therefore of adaptability to changing conditions. The Genebank maintains many different samples of current and potential use for breeders, farmers, seed producers, researchers which have been collected throughout the country. The plants represented in these collections include a wide range of economically important food crops (modern and primitive cultivars and their wild relatives), horticultural plants, forages, medicinal plants and forestry fruit trees.
The Genebank conserves these plant germplasm under long-term storage conditions as seeds, in cold freezers and as vegetative living plants in the field. The Genebank is involved in a range of different activities which make the germplasm more useful to farmers and to other scientists.
These activities include:
- Collecting and Acquisition of Germplasm.
- Processing and Conservation of Germplasm.
- Characterization and Evaluation.
- Germplasm Regeneration.
- Documentation and Information.
- Germplasm Distribution
The Germplasm collection
The Germplasm collection conserved at the Genebank counts for more than 4 100 accessions of plant genetic resources of more than 140 different species. These samples are kept under:
- Long term conservation (ex situ base collections)
- Mid and short term conservation (ex situ active collection)
- Vegetative conservation (ex situ field collections)