Crop diversity delivered practical benefits for food systems in 2025, from new seed deposits at Svalbard to disease-free sweet potato vines, opportunity crops and climate-resilient varieties reaching farmers.
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From Svalbard seed deposits to new climate-resilient crop varieties, the Crop Trust says crop diversity delivered practical benefits for farmers, breeders and food security.
The Crop Trust says 2025 showed how investments in crop diversity can support food security, climate resilience and farmer livelihoods, according to a press release from the organization.
In its 2025 Annual Report, the organization highlighted work to secure thousands of seed samples, support new crop varieties, improve access to clean planting material and strengthen the global systems that keep crop diversity conserved and available for use.
From the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic to farmers’ fields in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Crop Trust and its partners worked to ensure crop diversity is protected and used to support more resilient food systems.
More Seed Samples Secured at Svalbard
In 2025, genebanks around the world deposited more than 46,000 seed samples into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, bringing the total number conserved there to more than 1.37 million.
The deposits included rice from Vietnam, traditional African vegetables from Tanzania and first-time deposits from institutions safeguarding important national collections. Each deposit reflects years of work to regenerate, document and prepare seeds for long-term safety duplication.
At a time of increasing climate and geopolitical uncertainty, the Crop Trust says these deposits strengthen one of the world’s most important systems for protecting the future of food.
Healthier Sweet Potato Vines Reached Farmers
In Madagascar and Zambia, more than 100,000 clean, disease-free sweet potato vines were distributed to 355 farmers through a Crop Trust-led project funded by the Darwin Initiative.
The project collected more than 300 traditional sweet potato varieties and secured many through cryopreservation at the International Potato Center in Peru. It also returned cleaned planting material to farming communities, helping support harvests, incomes and food security.
The Crop Trust says the work shows how conserving crop diversity can deliver immediate benefits for farmers while also protecting options for future breeding and production.
Opportunity Crops Gained Momentum
Across seven countries, more than 250 stakeholders worked together to identify opportunity crops with strong potential for nutrition, resilience and livelihoods.
Countries prioritized crops closely tied to local food systems, including fonio in Nigeria, finger millet in Kenya, peach palm in Colombia and minor yams in India.
The engagement marked a milestone for the Crop Trust’s Power of Diversity Funding Facility, which aims to elevate crops that have often been overlooked by research and investment despite their importance to resilient food systems.
New Varieties Reached Farmers
The Crop Trust says crop diversity is conserved so it can be used. In 2025, partnerships supported through the BOLD project helped release new crop varieties adapted to drought, heat, disease and other production challenges.
These included drought- and heat-tolerant alfalfa in Kazakhstan, a new durum wheat variety in Nigeria and a late blight-resistant potato variety for the Andes.
In Morocco, a new durum wheat variety showed yield gains of more than 40% under severe drought conditions. The Crop Trust says these advances depend on continued access to diversity conserved in genebanks worldwide.
Vegetable Biodiversity Took a Step Forward
Vegetables often receive less attention than staple crops, despite their importance for nutrition and diverse diets. In 2025, the Crop Trust and World Vegetable Center launched Vegetables4Life, an initiative focused on rescuing, conserving and promoting vegetable diversity.
The initiative reflects growing recognition that future food systems need to be more diverse, nutritious and resilient.
Connecting Conservation to Use
The Crop Trust says the examples from 2025 show how crop diversity connects science, agriculture and food security. Every seed sample secured, collection strengthened and farmer reached helps build a stronger global genebank system.
By conserving crop diversity and making it available for use, the Crop Trust and its partners aim to support innovation, resilience and better nutrition for future generations.
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