International Crop Germplasm Exchange at ICRISAT

Plant genetic resources are essential for sustainable development of agriculture and food security. Rapid loss of plant biodiversity and realization of its importance during twentieth century led to collection, conservation and exchange of large number of germplasm in genebanks across the planet, resulting in the conservation of more than 6.1 million accessions in over 1,300 genebanks. Eleven International Agricultural Research Centers (IARC) maintain over 6,00,000 accessions and supply seed samples freely to scientists globally. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has the global responsibility of collection, conservation, evaluation, improvement, and distribution of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, and six small millets (finger millet, foxtail millet, proso millet, little millet, kodo millet, barnyard millet) germplasm. ICRISAT holds in tltlst 1,16,799 accessions from 142 countries. To support the research of national programs ICRISAT supplied over 1.22 million seed samples in 172 countries. A total of 583 varieties were released in 76 countries from the ICRISAT supplied germplasm and breeding material. Germplasm accessions at ICRISAT were evaluated for morphoagronomic, biotic, abiotic, and quality traits in batches as and when they were acquired. Core collections of sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, and finger millet and mini core collection of chickpea. pigeonpea. and groundnut were developed to enhance the utilization of germplasm. Genetically diverse. new sources of earlymaturity, large seed size, drought tolerance and chilling tolerance at germination were identified using core/mini core collection approach.