Now is the time to step up our support for conserving biodiversity and supporting the work of genebanks, not step back 

– 17 February 2026 –

Daniel Frans Van Gilst is a Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), which has long supported crop conservation around the world. It is a key funder of Africa’s Vegetable Genebank – the WorldVeg facility in Arusha, Tanzania, which currently conserves over 10,000 different kinds of seeds of traditional African Vegetables. We invited Daniel to reflect on the importance of genebanks to the future of food, and Norway’s efforts to support them.

Food security is often discussed as a development issue – linked to hunger and poverty and addressed through long-term improvements in agriculture and livelihoods. But it is increasingly also a question of preparedness: building resilience against shocks that can disrupt food production and availability.

Extreme weather, conflict, pandemics and trade disruptions have shown how quickly food systems can be destabilized. At the same time, climate change is steadily increasing pressure on agriculture year after year, bringing risks that no country can fully control or predict.

When crises hit, crop diversity functions as a kind of biological insurance: improved varieties can be bred to resist heat, pests and diseases, for example. But countries can only draw on the diversity available to them – not on what they wish they had conserved. Without efforts to conserve the widest possible range of crop diversity today, the capacity of agriculture to adapt tomorrow disappears. Once lost, it cannot be recreated. That applies as much to the diversity of staple grains like rice and wheat as it does to vegetables like tomato, pepper, and more.

Hence securing crop diversity in genebanks is a long‑term preparedness system designed to secure options for future generations in situations we cannot fully predict today.

International genebanks are an important part of this system. Many of these are already recognized by the UN, through the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), administered through FAO. These include those managed by international organizations – including CGIAR and other international centers, like WorldVeg. These genebanks safeguard the genetic diversity of many of the world’s most important food crops – and they make their collections available to all under agreed global rules. Together, they hold close to one million accessions (distinct samples or varieties).

From left to right: The long-term storage area of the WorldVeg international genebank – the largest public repository of vegetable seed – which contains over 65,000 accessions; cowpea seeds conserved by WorldVeg; garlic conserved in vitro by WorldVeg. Pics by Neil Palmer (WorldVeg).

Why it matters

The Irish Potato Famine (1845-52) shows why agriculture needs the sort of insurance policy that genebanks provide. Farmers relied on a small range of potato varieties and when the fungal pathogen late blight (Phytophthora infestans) struck, the lack of genetic diversity meant the entire crop was vulnerable. More than one million people died and another million emigrated. If a wider range of diversity had been grown, some varieties would have resisted the blight. Late blight is still a problem around the world, but breeders use the diversity in potato genebanks to breed higher-yielding, tastier, more resistant varieties. This is the kind biological insurance provided by genebanks – for potatoes and all other food crops.

But like any insurance policy, biological insurance must be paid for in advance, and often its value only becomes clear after a crisis has struck. Furthermore, it requires global cooperation: no country holds all the plant genetic resources it may one day need to adapt. Thus, conserving and sharing this diversity internationally is essential. This means genebanks are not just as archives of the past, but essential infrastructure for the future. Without them, preparedness is an illusion.

What we support

Norway sees its engagement in crop diversity conservation as a long‑term investment in shared food security preparedness, where national responsibility and global cooperation are closely aligned and reinforce each other.

Together with other donors, it contributes in a number of ways, for example, through funding to the CGIAR research system and international genebanks recognized by ITPGRFA, and by hosting the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the long-term backup facility for the world’s crop diversity.

It also backs the Crop Trust’s Endowment Fund, which – once fully funded – is designed to support the conservation and availability of crop diversity in key genebanks in perpetuity. The Fund already covers some 40% of the costs of essential operations of the CGIAR international genebanks, with other genebanks – including those of WorldVeg – working hard to meet and sustain the international conservation standards required to qualify for in-perpetuity funding.

Even so, we cannot afford to be complacent: some donors have been reducing support to genebanks recently. I firmly believe now is the time for genebank funders to step up, not back. It strengthens our preparedness, our resilience and allows for the best insurance in the face of unpredictable and compounding crises. We cannot rest until the job is done.

That’s why Norway has expanded its support to Africa’s Vegetable Genebank, the WorldVeg facility in Arusha, Tanzania, and CIFOR-ICRAF’s genebank in Nairobi, Kenya. Both are important international genebanks. The WorldVeg facility focuses on traditional African vegetables – nutrient-rich, climate-resilient crops like amaranth, jute mallow, pumpkin, okra, and African eggplant. The CIFOR-ICRAF genebank is considered the largest collection of agroforestry tree genetic resources in the world – a significant portion of these are fruit and nut trees. Such vegetable and fruit “opportunity crops” are vital for nutrition, livelihoods, and resilience to climate change – especially in vulnerable communities.

From left to right: Africa’s Vegetable Genebank, the WorldVeg-run facility in Arusha, Tanzania, which conserves the continent’s largest collection of traditional African vegetables; a rare amaranth accession at WorldVeg; and members of the team Africa’s Vegetable Genebank, after preparing seed boxes for shipping to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Pics by Neil Palmer (WorldVeg).

This brings me to a key point: Genebanks only deliver value and impact when their collections are actively used. Both WorldVeg and CIFOR-ICRAF have strong partnerships with organizations that reach farmers who require diversity to adapt their farming systems, including farmer cooperatives and organizations, community seed banks, and seed enterprises. These broad partnerships enable the seeds conserved in genebanks to be easily used, and support greater conservation through seed sharing between custodians and users of crop diversity.

More broadly, national strategies should be strengthened to integrate genebanks into agricultural and food system planning, linking them to public and private breeding programs, variety registration, and seed delivery to ensure farmers and other seed users are reached with both quality seed and agronomic knowledge. It also requires political commitment, sustained financing, and enabling policies to connect custodians and users. These national strategies should also promote crops with low market value but that are critical for nutrition and food security. WorldVeg, CGIAR centers, and the Crop Trust are strong allies in these strategies, but leadership must come from national actors.

Why Norway’s role matters — and must continue

Norad will help catalyze the transition from global support to national implementation. We must invest not only in conservation infrastructure, but also in policy development, capacity building, and inclusive seed systems. However, the seeds in the genebanks are the foundation and starting point. Protecting and securing this agricultural biodiversity through genebanks is how we prepare for an uncertain future.

The seeds conserved in genebank facilities like the Africa’s Vegetable Genebank, and other genebanks around the world are the tools for transformation and innovation. Continued investment in them is not a technical preference or a luxury, it is a choice between preparedness and vulnerability. If funding is reduced now, it will not be innovation that suffers first, but basic options for food production. And when biodiversity disappears, it’s too late: no emergency response can replace them.

Thank you.

Lead image of Daniel F. van Gilts by Luis Salazar of the Crop Trust.

The work of the Worldveg genebanks contributes to the Action Area on Vegetable Biodiversity as part of the WorldVeg Global Strategy (2026-2033).