Global Crop Diversity Trust
Global Crop Diversity Trust is an independent international organization which exists to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide. It was established through a partnership between the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) acting through Bioversity International.
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Overview
In 2006, the Crop Trust entered into a Relationship Agreement with the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Agreement recognises the Crop Trust as an "essential element" of the Treaty's funding strategy in regards to the ex situ conservation and availability of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It also confirms the autonomy of the Crop Trust as a scientific organization in raising and disbursing funds.
The Crop Trust is assembling an endowment (trust) fund, the income from which will be used to support the conservation of distinct and important crop diversity, in perpetuity, through existing institutions. Crop diversity is the biological foundation of agriculture, and is the raw material plant breeders and farmers use to adapt crop varieties to pests and diseases. In the future, this crop diversity will play a central role in helping agriculture adjust to climate change and adapt to water and energy constraints.
Watch the Crop Trust's "Feeding a Growing World through Crop Diversity"
Management
The Global Crop Diversity Trust has its offices in Bonn, Germany. The executive board is chaired by Ambassador Walter Fust (Switzerland) and the Vice chair is the Tim Fischer (Australia). The Crop Trust Trust also has a Donors' Council, chaired by Barbara Kosak (Germany). The organization has raised approximately $170 million for its endowment. Main donors include: Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, U.S., the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (Australia). A number of developing countries have also provided support, including Egypt, Ethiopia and India. Further contributions have been received from private corporations, foundations, industry associations, and from private individuals.
The Crop Trust is led by Marie Haga, who was the Chairperson of the Centre Party in Norway from 2003 - 2008. Ms. Haga has held three Ministerial positions in Norway: Minister of Cultural Affairs from 1999-2000, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development from 2005-2007, and Minister of Petroleum and Energy from 2007-2008.The Deputy Executive Director is Paula Bramel, and the Director of Finance is Michael Koch.
Grants
Since its establishment the Crop Trust has funded work in over 80 countries, and made its first grant for long-term conservation of a collection in late 2006.[1] By 2011, the Crop Trust has established in-perpetuity support (i.e. grants funded through the Crop Trust's endowment) for collections of 15 crops: rice, cassava, wheat, barley, faba bean, pearl millet, maize, forages, banana, aroids, grass pea, sorghum, yam and lentil.
In 2007, the Crop Trust began a global initiative to rescue threatened, high-priority collections of crop diversity in developing countries and to support information systems to improve their conservation and availability.[2] These efforts included providing support to developing countries and international agricultural research centers to deposit shipments of seed samples in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for safety duplication purposes.
In 2010, the Crop Trust launched a global 10-year program to find, gather, catalog and save the wild relatives of 22 major food crops.[3] These wild species contain untapped diversity to help address future challenges to agriculture.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The Crop Trust is involved with the Government of Norway and the Nordic Gene Bank in the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a "fail-safe" facility located at Svalbard, Norway. This facility provides a safety back-up for existing genebank collections, which are vulnerable to war, civil strife, natural disasters and even to equipment failure and mismanagement. The Vault has also been touted as providing a means for restoring agriculture in the event of a global catastrophe of some sort. It is designed to hold 4 million samples of different varieties (in the form of seed) of agricultural crops.
See also
References
External links
Watch the Crop Trust's "Feeding a Growing World through Crop Diversity"
