What is a Genebank?
A genebank is a facility that stores living samples of the diversity of crop varieties and their wild relatives. These samples are often in the form of seeds kept in cold stores. They may also be maintained in collections of living plants in the field, as tissue cultures in growth chambers, as cryopreserved tissues or even as samples of pollen. Some of the plants held in genebanks are now extinct in the wild; others may be threatened with extinction. Together they contain the diversity that underpins a stable and sustainable food supply.
