Bioversity International

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Bioversity International

Merged into	The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT [1]
Formation	1974 (joined forces with CIAT to become the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in 2019)
Type	Global non-profit research-for-development organization
Legal status	International organisation
Purpose	Research for development
Headquarters	Rome, Italy
Location	Italy
Region served	32 offices worldwide
Director General	Juan Lucas Restrepo [2]
Staff	560 approx.
Website	alliancebioversityciat.org

Bioversity International is the name of the research team and infrastructure which is now part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. Both working within the CGIAR research partnership, in 2019 Bioversity International's research team joined forces with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, for its acronym in Spanish), becoming one research-for-development organization working to “deliver research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people's lives".

Bioversity International's office in Rome now serves as the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT's global headquarters. Bioversity International is the operating name of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).

Research and Impact

Since its establishment under the name International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), the organization's main focus has been on collecting and conserving crop genetic resources to ensure lasting agrobiodiversity. At the time of the IBPGR's establishment, there were about eight gene banks in the world. In the decades following its establishment, IBPGR supported national and regional governments with the establishment of gene banks all over the world, training hundreds of scientists on how to run these gene banks, developing conservation protocols and gene bank standards.  

From an original focus on safeguarding major food crops in gene banks, in the mid-1990s the conservation focus started to put a stronger focus on collecting and protecting largely neglected crop species of great local importance, as well as on the conservation of tree genetic resources, wild crop relatives, and a growing focus on safeguarding banana diversity, leading to the establishment of the Musa Transit Centre (ITC) in Belgium in 1985: a gene bank home to the world's largest collection of banana species. Hosted by KU Leuven University in Belgium, the ITC protects more than 1,500 accessions of edible and wild banana species, making it one of the most significant repositories of cryopreserved germplasm in the world, which is in continual expansion as agricultural research evolves.

History

The establishment of Bioversity International is a result of developments in the international agricultural research partnership CGIAR (originally the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research), which was established in 1971 with the support of international donors, international development organizations and national governments to bring together agriculture research for development centers to contribute to achieving global food security. In a CGIAR Subcommittee meeting on genetic resources in 1973, the leadership agreed to establish an ‘International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR)’, with the objective of “identifying general and specific needs for exploration, collection, conservation and evaluation of plant genetic resources, with particular reference to species of major economic importance and their wild and cultivated relatives, to determine priorities among them, and to ensure that the materials conserved are made available for plant breeding and other scientific activities as required.”  

Whilst IBPGR was originally hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in FAO's headquarters in Rome, as the organization grew, in 1991 IBPGR became an independent organization, signing an agreement with the Italian Government to establish its own headquarters in Maccarese, Italy (in the outskirts of Rome). In doing so, the organization was renamed the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). By establishing itself in Rome, Bioversity International created strong and valuable ties to the FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), all of which are Rome based, and collaborate to contribute to achieving global food security through different complementary activities. As IBPGR's reputation as a leader in protecting valuable agricultural resources grew, in 2006, IBPGR was renamed Bioversity International.

45 years after its establishment, in a 2019 reform of the CGIAR network, Bioversity International joined forces with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) – a research for development organization headquartered in Palmira, Colombia – to become the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, with a broader mandate of contributing towards the global objective of achieving food security whilst protecting natural resources, promoting agrobiodiversity, and ensuring inclusive and sustainable food systems.

See the full history of the evolution of Bioversity International here.

References