Annual Report 2025

In a time of growing challenges for global food systems, conserving crop diversity is one of the most practical and powerful investments we can make for the future.

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In 2025, the Crop Trust put opportunity into focus. Much of our work this year supported opportunity crops – local, traditional crops that have enormous potential to improve production and nutrition while opening the door to better lives and livelihoods for farmers, particularly women. Yet, they are overlooked by research and policy. Their potential depends on the strength of the global genebank system that conserves, improves and makes them available – turning stored diversity into real-world opportunity.

We saw how this can work. From our Food Forever Experience alongside the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, to Crop Diversity Day in Lima in November, we heard how opportunity crops can diversify diets and enhance incomes. We saw how new crop varieties developed by plant breeders open opportunities for farmers facing drought, heat, pests and disease. And we heard how well-supported genebanks provide the foundation for innovation in agriculture – enabling adaptation and progress.

We advanced opportunities through our continued support for international genebanks, and celebrated the AfricaRice genebank reaching a new stage in our long-term partnership. The International Potato Center opened its new CryoVault, expanding global capacity to safeguard crops that cannot fully benefit from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, such as potato and sweetpotato. We rolled out digital tools for genebanks to manage and share their collections and launched new knowledge resources to support the global crop diversity conservation community.

This year, we continued to strengthen the global system of national genebanks that opens these opportunities. We launched the Power of Diversity Funding Facility and engaged farmers to conserve valuable opportunity crops in seven countries. National genebanks made major deposits to Svalbard, backed by the BOLD project. Our Seeds for Resilience partners broke ground on the new facilities they need to safely store seeds. 

We also invested in people and partnerships – perhaps the greatest source of opportunity. Through the Genebank Academy, we opened new pathways for aspiring plant scientists. With partners such as the World Vegetable Center, we launched the Vegetables4Life initiative to elevate the importance of vegetable diversity. And through collaborations with botanical gardens, we strengthened the networks that sustain crop diversity worldwide.

Crop diversity is more than just something to protect. It needs to be used. When conserved and shared effectively, it opens opportunities for innovation, resilience and improved lives and livelihoods.

This Annual Report highlights the progress made in 2025 and the vital contribution of the donors and partners who make this work possible. In a time of growing challenges for global food systems, conserving crop diversity is one of the most practical and powerful investments we can make for the future.

I invite you to join us in this mission. By supporting the Crop Trust and the global genebank system, together, we can ensure that the diversity of our crops continues to create possibilities for generations to come.

Stefan Schmitz
Executive Director
Crop Trust