By christelle.rabil@croptrust.org
November 13, 2025

Advancing genebank data management through collaboration and hands-on training

A dynamic week of collaboration, learning, and live demonstrations brought together 23 genebank professionals from 11 organizations across eight countries in Rabat, Morocco to advance their knowledge of genebank data management.

From 27–31 October 2025, the second GOAL Data Management (GOAL-DM) workshop of the year took place in Rabat, Morocco. Organized by the Crop Trust and ICARDA, this event built on the success of the June workshop in Johannesburg. GOAL stands for Genebank Operations and Advanced Learning.

Participants represented national genebanks and research institutions from Azerbaijan, Ghana, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, as well as the international genebanks of  the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT (Palmira), IITA, ILRI, ICRAF, and ICARDA (Morocco). Support for participation came from the Crop Trust.

Attendees explored the latest GGCE modules and Genesys functionalities in interactive sessions and live demonstrations. The GGCE live demo, presented by a team of practitioners from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco, was a particular highlight, allowing participants to experience real workflows and exchange practical tips on how to effectively use information technologies in genebank operations.

Workshop sessions covered topics such as:

• Inventory and seed viability management

• Configuring permissions and email alerts in GGCE

• Barcoding, labeling, and managing distribution of material

• Managing non-seed collections with GGCE

• Using Genesys for data publication, including characterization data 

Participants also shared their experiences of how GGCE and Genesys are implemented in their genebanks, with case studies from IITA, ILRI, ICARDA, ICRAF, GeRRI Kenya, NACGRAB Nigeria, and INRA Morocco.

Our sincere thanks go to ICARDA for hosting and providing invaluable support. The Crop Trust also acknowledges the generous support of the BOLD Project and the SFR Project for enabling participation of partner genebanks.

Events like these strengthen the data management capacities of genebanks, as well as collaboration among genebanks, ensuring that the world’s crop diversity is well-managed and remains readily accessible to address hunger and malnutrition.