Funding genebank routines … forever

In 2018, the Crop Trust entered into a long-term partnership agreement (LPA) with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based on a comprehensive genebank business plan, the first of its kind. The IRRI genebank has reached and sustained the agreed performance targets and has functioned on a fixed budget for several years. As a result it has been the first CGIAR genebank to receive long-term funding from the Crop Trust endowment for routine operations. This article looks at how routine genebank operations are far from routine and how the Crop Trust’s Endowment fund can help secure long-term funding for those operations.