Programmes 

IPGRI has three programmes (see organigram ):

• The Plant Genetic Resources Programme, which supports the efforts of national, regional and international systems to conserve and use plant genetic resources. This is IPGRI's largest programme. It consists of regional offices for the Americas, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central and West Asia and North Africa, and Asia, Pacific and Oceania, and two thematic groups: Genetic Resources Science and Technology, and Documentation, Information and Training.

• The International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP), which works to increase and sustain the productivity of bananas and plantains grown on smallholdings.
  

• The CGIAR Genetic Resources Support Programme, which provides advice and services to the CGIAR in the area of genetic resources policy, and enhances the system's work on genetic resources through the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP).

Projects

IPGRI's activities are implemented through
20 multidisciplinary projects that are regional or global in scope.

1. Strengthening national plant genetic resources programmes and networks in the Americas
   This project aims to assist countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in building their capacities to conserve and use plant genetic resources. It also establishes and maintains links with institutions in North America.
   
   

2. Strengthening national plant genetic resources programmes and networks in Asia, the Pacific and Oceania
   This project aims to assist countries in Asia, the Pacific and Oceania in building their capacities to conserve and use plant genetic resources. It also promotes the adoption of integrated approaches to conservation in the region.
   
   

3. Strengthening national plant genetic resources programmes and networks in Europe
   This project aims to assist countries in Europe in building their capacities to conserve and use plant genetic resources. It emphasizes the security of crop collections under threat in Eastern European countries and encourages technology and information exchange between Western and Eastern Europe.
   
   

4. Strengthening national plant genetic resources programmes and networks in sub-Saharan Africa
   This project aims to assist countries in sub-Saharan Africa in building their capacities to conserve and use plant genetic resources. It also aims to raise the awareness of policy-makers and the public of issues relating to plant genetic resources.
   
   

5. Strengthening national plant genetic resources programmes and networks in Central & West Asia and North Africa
   This project aims to assist countries in West Asia-North Africa in building their capacities to conserve and use plant genetic resources. It also covers Central Asia. A further aim is to raise the awareness of policy-makers and the public of issues relating to plant genetic resources.
   
   

6. Capacity-building for plant genetic resouces conservation and use
   This project aims to enable countries to build effective national plant genetic resources conservation and use programmes. It trains scientists and trainers and develops training tools.
   
   

7. Global forest genetic resources strategies
   This project aims to support strategic research on the conservation and use of intraspecific diversity of useful forest tree species. It also aims to develop an information system on forest genetic resources.
   
   

8. Commodity chains research to promote sustainable livelihoods
   This project identifies constraints and opportunities for supporting sustainable livelihoods through IPGRI's projects on cacao, coconut and tropical fruit.
   
   

9. Locating, assessing and monitoring genetic diversity
   This project aims to develop methods for locating and measuring genetic diversity in cultivated and wild species, combining ethnobotanical with genetic and agro-ecological approaches. It also develops methods for monitoring genetic erosion.
   
   

10. Plant genetic resources conservation strategies and technologies
    This project aims to develop improved and, whenever possible, low-input technologies for the ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources. It also investigates ex situ conservation strategies.
    
    

11. Law and policies affecting the conservation, use and exchange of genetic resources for food and agriculture
    This project aims to develop a scientific basis for effective on-farm conservation in ways that meet farmer and community needs and that provide for the effective maintenance and evolution of diversity. It also assists national systems in locating, monitoring and maintaining viable in situ populations of the wild relatives of crops.
    
    

12. Agricultural biodiversity management and production systems
    This project aims to strengthen the links between plant genetic resources conservation and use, with a view to enhancing both. It focuses on both ex situ and in situ approaches, and on the development of complementary conservation strategies. It emphasizes neglected and underused crops and supports the use of cacao genetic resources.
    
    

13. Livelihoods and institutions: social, cultural and economic aspects of agrobiodiversity
    The project aims to strengthen the links between plant genetic resources conservation and the well-being of people, particularly poor rural people. It emphasizes such factors as gender, nutrition, incomes, indigenous knowledge, traditional resource rights, participatory approaches, access and benefit-sharing policies and intellectual property rights legislation. It also informs policy-makers on these subjects.
    
    

14. Plant genetic resources information management and knowledge sharing
    This project aims to provide information services and to build capacity in information management so as to meet national, regional and international responsibilities for the conservation and use of genetic resources. It also provides publications and information to support the research activities of IPGRI staff and their partners.
    
    

15. Understanding and communicating the value and impact of plant genetic resources
    This project aims to build and sustain financial and institutional support for plant genetic resources activities worldwide by raising awareness among key target audiences of the role of these resources in sustainable development and food security. It also aims to assess IPGRI's impact on the conservation and use of plant genetic resources.
    
    

16. Musa genetic resources management
    This project aims to collect the germplasm of Musa and its wild relatives and to promote its safe storage and movement, and its use. It also develops standardized tools for retrieving and exchanging information on Musa germplasm.
    
    

17. Genetic improvement of Musa improvement
    This project aims to identify disease- and pest-resistant Musa genotypes, to carry out strategic research on Musa pathogen diversity, screening methods and molecular genetics, and to develop improved Musa genotypes. In addition to providing Musa germplasm, the project also distributes beneficial root microflora such as mycorrhizae.
    
    

18. Musa information management and sharing
    This project aims to coordinate, facilitate and support the production, collecting and exchange of information on banana and plantain. It publicizes Musa issues and the work of INIBAP to both scientific and non-technical audiences.
    
    

19. Regional support to Musa research
    This project aims to support INIBAP's global regional and national networks and other partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Asia, the Pacific and Oceania, and in sub-Saharan Africa.
    
    

20. Supporting global genetic resources conservation and use through the System-wide Genetic Resources Programme
    This project aims to provide support to the CGIAR system in two areas: genetic resources policy, and genetic resources conservation and use. Support in the second area is provided in IPGRI's capacity as convening centre of the CGIAR's System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP).
    

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Partnerships

Revised on December 19, 2005
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