Seed Systems, Crop Conservation and Genetic Diversity

The conservation and sustainable use of crop biodiversity are increasingly recognized as central to resilient food systems, climate adaptation, and long-term agricultural innovation. Achieving these goals requires integrated approaches that support and (re-)design seed systems to provision diversity, strengthen farmer seed systems, bridge in situ and ex situ conservation, connect local and global actors, and combine institutional, ecological, and technological perspectives.

Seed systems play a pivotal role in crop genetic conservation and ongoing evolutionary processes. They mediate gene flow between wild and cultivated populations, enable the spatial and temporal reproduction of landraces, support a range of restoration actions (repatriation, rematriation, community seed banks, seed savers networks, etc.), and provide the foundation for downstream applications such as plant breeding and value-chain development. While public conservation mechanisms—most notably national and international genebanks—remain central, they coexist with a rich diversity of community-based and farmer-led initiatives. Together, these form a complex institutional and socioecological landscape characterized by multiple stakeholders operating under distinct governance regimes yet pursuing interconnected and often interdependent objectives.

Seed system components – ranging from sources and genetic resources, (re)production and multiplication, quality assurance, distribution and exchange to access and use – are critical determinants of conservation effectiveness. At the same time, advances in genetic and genomic tools, long-term seed storage technologies, participatory monitoring approaches, and citizen science are transforming how crop diversity is assessed, documented, and managed across scales. These processes are further shaped by social norms, power relations, and governance arrangements, as well as by political and regulatory frameworks governing seed ownership, access rights, certification, and benefit-sharing, which together influence whose knowledge is recognized, which seed systems are supported, and how conservation outcomes are distributed.