Key Moments of 2025

In 2025, Crop Trust advocacy and activities advanced efforts on the three strategic goals outlined in the 2030 Strategic Plan: Food Forever. The Strategic Plan was put in place in 2023 to guide the action towards our mission to conserve crop diversity for the long term and ensure it can be used to develop more sustainable, resilient and healthy agrifood systems.

Goal 1: Long-term Support for the Maintenance of Essential Genebank Operations

Focus on permanently covering the costs of essential operations of international genebanks under Article 15 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (International Plant Treaty) by 2030.

Celebrated the AfricaRice genebank reaching a new stage of long-term support and the International Potato Center opening a new CryoVault.
Partnered with the International Plant Treaty Secretariat to revitalize the coffee collection at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center.
Conducted external reviews of genebanks at the International Livestock Research Institute and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
Launched a costing study to determine support needs for World Vegetable Center genebanks.
Launched a Genebank Academy to train genebank staff on digital tools for data management and best practices for operations.
Provided USD 17 million in support for genebanks, including long-term and time-bound support for important collections of crop diversity.

Goal 2: Time-bound Support for the Upgrading, Collecting and Use of Crop Diversity

Project support for upgrading genebank facilities, conserving threatened crop diversity in

genebanks and enhancing the availability of crop diversity.

BOLD delivered major advances for the global genebank system in 2025, celebrating releases of new crop varieties and forty-two partners depositing over 33,000 seed samples in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The project helped launch the Genebank Academy, expanded the Opportunity Crops Knowledge Base and introduced an interactive experience on conservation and plant breeding. BOLD also strengthened genebank collaboration, supported emergency actions to protect at-risk collections, and completed seed systems assessments to improve farmer access to crop diversity.
The Power of Diversity Funding Facility engaged more than 250 stakeholders across seven countries to identify priority opportunity crops rooted in local diets and resilience. With crops selected, the project moved into implementation, advancing gap analyses, genebank reviews and plans to strengthen seed systems and value chains.
Seeds for Resilience was extended for two years, with focus shifting to upgrades of essential infrastructure and genebank renovations. Project activities strengthened national genebank data management and advocacy.
The new Securing Our Seeds project launched with support by the Google AI Collaborative: Food Security, enabling the Crop Trust to continue work at the forefront of digital innovation and conservation in genebanks.

Goal 3: Increasing Global Awareness of the Importance of Crop Diversity

Efforts to deepen and broaden institutional partnerships and strategic communications and outreach that elevate crop diversity on the global development agenda.

Convened global stakeholders around innovation and investment in the genebank system, including Crop Diversity Day 2025 and high-profile outreach alongside GB-11.
Elevated crop diversity in global policy discussions, engaging climate, security and development communities at the UN Bonn Climate Meetings, Munich Security Conference, and cross-sector dialogues.
Expanded strategic partnerships, including the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants and the Google AI Collaborative: Food Security, while strengthening engagement with governments, donors and private-sector stakeholders.
Amplified the value of multilateral cooperation and opportunity crops through coordinated storytelling, publishing 110 stories and multimedia features while reaching nearly three million people each month via social media.

Strengthened engagement with partners and stakeholders through targeted campaigns, the Dish newsletter and a Devex partnership during GB-11 that expanded outreach to the global development audience.