Collecting missions: an online agricultural heritage
Currently more than 7.4 million plant accessions are conserved in more than 1,750 ex situ conservation facilities around the world. Read more in this 2014 Annual Report story.
Currently more than 7.4 million plant accessions are conserved in more than 1,750 ex situ conservation facilities around the world. To a large extent, the use of this germplasm depends on the quality and quantity of data available about each accession.
Detailed eco-geographic, environmental, biotic and climate information was and still is necessary to improve breeders’, scientists’ and farmers’ knowledge about the accessions, and to further increase their use.
In the 1970s, a global plant genetic resources conservation movement arose from the concern that genetic diversity was being lost. Bioversity International, then the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, was part of this movement. In 1974 we began to send plant collectors from national and international institutions on worldwide collecting expeditions. By 1995 more than 200,000 samples had been collected – today they total 226,618.
Reports on each of the 559 collecting expeditions were stored at Bioversity International’s headquarters. In 2013, based on this Collecting Missions Files Repository, Bioversity International launched an open-access online database through which one can access an interactive map and query by species, country, collector’s name, mission title and other topics. Passport and traits datasets are also available for download.