About us

Crop Trust

It bears repeating – crop diversity is the foundation of our food and nutrition security, now and in the future. And the Crop Trust is the only organization whose sole mission is to safeguard the world’s crop diversity in genebanks. Since 2004, we have built up an endowment fund that allows us to provide financial support to key genebanks that hold collections of diversity of food crops that are available to users under the Plant Treaty. We also provide technical support to help these genebanks run as efficiently as possible and help them back up their collections in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for safekeeping.

BOLD

The world’s climate is becoming increasingly extreme and unpredictable. We urgently need new crop varieties that can grow and produce well under these new conditions. And this is what BOLD – Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development – is about. Working with genebanks, plant breeders, farmers and others, we are working to make sure that we all know what diversity is available, where, and how to access it, and have the skills and knowledge to put it to use. BOLD is broadening the genetic base of seven key food and forage crops. BOLD works with partners in 20 countries, involving farmers in breeding and testing the resulting products in the field. Thanks to BOLD, new, superior, well-adapted varieties are now reaching farmers’ hands.

Norad

Norad – the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation – is a unique donor. You’d be hard pressed to find another donor that supports long-term global projects that look at a problem in a comprehensive way.

Thanks to more than a decade of support by Norad, the Crop Trust has been able to support actors and activities that work towards safeguarding, making available and using crop diversity. Norad’s one hard rule: whatever we do must contribute to all of humanity, under the framework of the FAO Plant Treaty.