Celebrating A Year of Achievements
Annual Report 2023
The Crop Trust experienced another year of excellent progress in 2023 in our mission to fortify the global genebank system.
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The Crop Trust experienced another year of excellent progress in 2023 in our mission to fortify the global genebank system. We owe this success to the unwavering dedication of our staff and partners, whose tireless efforts, along with the generous contributions of our donors, drive our ambitious agenda.
Genebanks play a pivotal role in ensuring the climate resilience of our food systems, and hence global food security. They serve as repositories of crop diversity, which is essential for the future sustenance and prosperity of humanity. Our work remains indispensable in conserving these vital agricultural resources across the globe, empowering breeders and researchers to develop resilient crop varieties and enabling farmers to cultivate diverse crops capable of feeding a growing population in the face of climate change.
While our technical endeavors are critical to our impact, they are not the only thing we do. Raising awareness of the importance of crop diversity is also an important part of our work.
In 2023, I was delighted to see crop diversity garnering attention at key international events, such as Africa’s Food Systems Forum 2023, Climate Week NYC, UN COP28 and the Global Crop Diversity Summit. These platforms allowed us to underscore the significance of our mission and spur collective action to address the intertwined challenges of food insecurity, climate change, and biodiversity loss.
We are grateful for the continued support and engagement of our expanding community of donors. Their contributions to our Endowment Fund, combined with strong investment returns, allowed it to grow in value from USD 277 million to USD 305 million. While this is indeed a significant sum, it is important to remember that sustaining genebanks is not a one-time purchase, but rather requires ongoing commitment and resources from both our existing and new donors.
My heartfelt appreciation goes to the Governments of the United Kingdom and United States of America, the Bezos Earth Fund and Limagrain, for their generous contributions and pledges in 2023. Your support gets us closer to safeguarding crop diversity forever.
In 2023, we expanded our long-term support to the genebanks of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Colombia), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria and the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg). These vital collections of crop diversity are a step closer to sustainable, forever funding.
On behalf of the Executive Board, I extend gratitude to all who champion our Food Forever vision. We recognize the challenges ahead and are pleased to welcome the appointment of Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin and Dr. Josette Lewis to our Executive Board; they will take up their positions in 2024. Geoff, the Crop Trust’s first ever Executive Director, brings a wealth of experience that will be invaluable as we navigate the complexities of ensuring global food security. Josette’s diverse background and complementary perspective will also be invaluable.
Please take a moment to peruse our annual report. Your ongoing support is fundamental to our continued success. Together, I am confident we can make 2024 another year of significant achievements.
Thank you,
Catherine Bertini
Chair of the Executive Board
In 2023, the Crop Trust made significant strides in advancing the conservation of crop diversity — and indeed its celebration — around the world
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In 2023, the Crop Trust made significant strides in advancing the conservation of crop diversity — and indeed its celebration — around the world. And in our Strategic Plan 2030, unveiled under the banner of Food Forever, we show how we intend to continue the progress over the next seven years, aiming to secure vital collections of crop diversity and enhance their accessibility.
At the Global Crop Diversity Summit, the Crop Trust and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture brought together key stakeholders to showcase the critical role of genebanks in reshaping agrifood systems. The Communique presented at the end of the Summit underscored the urgent need for transforming agrifood systems in response to the intertwined crises of food security, climate change and biodiversity loss. It emphasized the pivotal role of plant diversity in enhancing agricultural productivity, sustainability and resilience, calling for greater collaboration within the global genebank community to safeguard crop diversity and promote sustainable agriculture. The Communique also highlighted the necessity for increased funding to support genebank operations and proposed the establishment of an annual "Crop Diversity Day'' to raise awareness and advocate for continued support for crop diversity conservation.
Partnerships remained paramount, with long-term agreements signed with key CGIAR institutions like the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to support their genebanks. The Crop Trust adopted an innovative financing approach with help from the Bezos Earth Fund, which contributed USD 440,000 to the Endowment Fund as part of a larger research grant to The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. It is the first time that a donor has agreed to include an additional contribution that explicitly recognizes the importance of long-term conservation and availability of crop diversity for research purposes. We were selected as an official partner of the City of Bonn for 2023 and have the wonderful opportunity to deepen the relationship with our host city and highlight the importance of crop diversity.
During the year, we extended support to genebanks in Sudan and Laos through our Emergency Reserve for Genebanks, while launching initiatives like Building Opportunities for Lesser-known Diversity in Edible Resources (BOLDER) at COP28 to amplify the availability of relatively neglected crops. By providing farmers with more options, BOLDER contributes to the Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, launched in 2023 by the U.S. State Department with the African Union and others. As a VACS Champion, we also contribute to the initiative through the global crop conservation strategies, the BOLD and Seeds for Resilience projects and Genesys.
2023 was also a time to celebrate milestones. The Svalbard Seed Vault – which the Crop Trust co-manages with the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and the regional genebank Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) — marked its 15th anniversary, representing a symbol of hope and partnership in saving seeds for future generations. And Ghana became the 100th depositor to place duplicates of its collection inside the Seed Vault, which continues to welcome new members to its ‘family’ every year.
The year ahead has much in store as the Crop Trust celebrates its 20th anniversary. This will be a moment to take stock of our past achievements and our goals for the next 20 years. In 2024, our resource mobilization efforts will focus on fundraising as we strive towards additional support for the Endowment Fund.
To all staff, partners, donors and fans of crop diversity, I am deeply grateful for your unwavering support and enthusiasm. I hope you will join us as we embark on even bigger and better things in 2024.
Sincerely,
Stefan Schmitz
Executive Director, Crop Trust
Key figures
CROP DIVERSITY CONSERVED
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In 2023, USD 16.6 million was provided to projects and other activities that strengthen the conservation and use of the diversity of everything from banana to rice.
CROP DIVERSITY SAFELY BACKED UP
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As of December 2023, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault safeguards 1,267,127 seed samples from 102 genebanks and research institutions worldwide.
CROP DIVERSITY DOCUMENTED
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Genesys enables users worldwide to explore, identify and request crop diversity for breeding and research.
CROP DIVERSITY USED
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2023 marking the highest number of distributions in a single year in the past 40 years. In the last three years, the Crop Trust has contributed almost 30% of the total costs of essential operations of the CGIAR genebanks, helping to maintain this precious crop diversity viable and available, forever.
CROP DIVERSITY HIGHLIGHTED
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The Crop Trust reached 2.5 million people every month across its social media channels and welcomed 1,700 people—in person and online—at the Global Crop Diversity Summit.
CROP DIVERSITY FINANCIALLY SECURED
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New contributions to the Crop Diversity Endowment Fund were received for USD 5.9 million.
Highlights of the Year
January
Crop Conservation Strategies Showcased
A year-long communications campaign highlighted the research and recommendations behind the Global Crop Conservation Strategies.
February
Svalbard Global Seed Vault Celebrates 15th Year
The Seed Vault welcomed new deposits and launched a virtual tour.
March
Chill Solution for Meeting Future Demand of Sweetpotato
The Crop Trust, together with experts from Zambia, Madagascar and CIP, have been testing ‘Clean & Share’, a model for long-term conservation of sweetpotato involving cryopreservation.
April
Long-term Support For Beans and Forages
A new Long-term Partnership Agreement was signed between the Crop Trust and The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
May
How Genebanks are Helping to Build a Resilient Food System
The Crop Trust is working with five national genebanks across Africa to enhance their daily operations, including plant health management.
June
New BOLD Project Website Launched
Visitors can now explore and stay up to date with the BOLD Project on a new website.
July
African Genebanks Build a Community
The Seeds for Resilience project enhances African genebanks through partnership and knowledge sharing.
August
Connecting for Better Outcomes for Farmers
Seed systems are critical to ensuring that the right crop diversity reaches and stays in farmers’ fields.
September
Long-term Support For Sub-Saharan Africa’s Crop Diversity
Crop Trust and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) signed a Long-term Partnership Agreement.
October
Ghana Genebank Becomes the 100th Depositor
The historical deposit from CSIR-PGRRI included maize, rice, eggplant and cowpea varieties.
November
The First Global Crop Diversity Summit Hosted in Berlin
Experts gathered with a focus on empowering seedbanks to combat the climate, biodiversity and food crises.
December
Crop Trust Dares to Be BOLDER with Initiative in Africa
By providing farmers with more options through the increased use of opportunity crops, BOLDER contributes to the Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative.
