Genebanks play a crucial role in safeguarding crop diversity and supporting future food security in the face of climate change. However, the effectiveness of these collections depends on reliable management and transparent reporting.
A new scientific paper has set out a standardized framework for monitoring and evaluating the performance of genebanks, aiming to enhance the management of plant genetic resources collections across Europe and beyond.
The paper, published by van Hintum et al. in Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization, presents a set of 10 mandatory and 38 optional metrics for monitoring collections of orthodox seeds. These metrics are designed to be simple to calculate yet provide a valuable tool for improving transparency, performance and collaboration among genebanks.
Genebanks have often faced difficulties in assessing their performance due to inconsistent terminology and varying standards. For example, even basic terms such as ‘accession’ or ‘base sample’ are not always defined in the same way across institutions, complicating efforts to monitor conservation status or identify regeneration backlogs.
Twelve European genebanks and two international institutions were consulted in the development of the metrics, which cover five key areas:
- Size and composition of the collection
- Data and documentation
- Conservation
- Availability
- Distribution
The proposed set of genebank metrics is not intended as a final standard but represents an important step forward. Drawing inspiration from the reporting requirements of the FAO State of the World reports and the CGIAR genebanks’ online reporting tool, these metrics are expected to stimulate discussion toward a broadly accepted framework within the genebank community. Coordinated use of such metrics would both strengthen day-to-day genebank management and simplify reporting and auditing processes, improving communication with funders, policymakers and users. The authors argue that this coordinated approach has the potential to significantly enhance the effectiveness of genebanks worldwide.
While the proposed metrics were developed for orthodox seed collections, further work is needed to adapt them for other ex situ conservation methods such as in vitro storage, cryopreservation and field collections, as well as in situ strategies like genetic reserves and on-farm conservation. Discussions in this regard have already started.
The work was part of ‘New AEGIS’, a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity. The initiative builds on the efforts of AEGIS (A European Genebank Integrated System), coordinated by the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), which aims at conserving in a collaborative way and at agreed quality standards, the genetically unique and important accessions for Europe of all crops and making them available for breeding and research.
Read the paper:
Theo van Hintum, Bela Bartha, Claudio Niggli, Alvina Avagyan, Sylvia Vogl, Lisa Achathaler, Vojtech Holubec, Ludmilla Papouskova, Francesco Ferrari, Graziano Rossi, Attila Simon, Lajos Horvath, Renata Kowalik, Maja Boczkowka, Stephan Weise, Markus Oppermann, Maarten van Zonneveld, Matija Obreza, Erik Wijnker, Noam Chayut, Fadia Chairi, Johan Axelsson, Lise Lykke Steffensen and Filippo Guzzon. “A Proposal for Genebank Metrics to Enhance Collection Management.” Plant Genetic Resources: Characterization and Utilization, 2025, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S147926212510021X