Genesys Surpasses 4.5 Million Accessions
October 14, 2026
Pakistan’s national genebank pushes the global database past a new milestone.
In May 2026, Genesys officially passed 4.5 million accessions. This milestone was achieved following a contribution of 40,131 accessions from the National Genebank of Pakistan, which is part of the Plant Genetic Resources Institute (PGRI) of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PAK001). This contribution significantly enhances the presence of South Asian crop diversity in Genesys, offering researchers and plant breeders information on unique genetic resources from a relatively under-represented region.
Dr. Tariq Rafique, Principal Scientific Officer at genebank explains: “We maintain a comprehensive cross-section of Pakistan’s agricultural biodiversity. The collection is highly diversified, but focused on staple cereals, high-protein grain legumes, and oilseed crops adapted to the region’s diverse agro-ecological conditions.”
The crops in this upload include:
| Crop | Accessions | Primary Species |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat | 4,128 | Triticum aestivum (Bread wheat) |
| Mustard / Rapeseed | 3,851 | Brassica rapa |
| Rice | 3,846 | Oryza sativa (Asian rice) |
| Black gram / Mung bean | 2,488 | Vigna mungo |
| Chickpea | 2,211 | Cicer arietinum |
| Pea | 1,605 | Pisum sativum |
| Barley | 1,481 | Hordeum vulgare |
| Soybean | 1,297 | Glycine max |
| Common bean | 1,105 | Phaseolus vulgaris |
| Guar / Cluster bean | 1,055 | Cyamopsis tetragonoloba |
Sharing this data reflects a strong commitment to international treaty compliance and open science on the part of Pakistan’s national genebank.
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Multilateral System (MLS) Integration: A total of 29,740 accessions have been officially designated under the Multilateral System of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). This facilitates their availability under standardized terms for breeding, research and training.
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Material Availability: Over 30,400 of the registered accessions are physically available for distribution, allowing scientists worldwide to request samples directly.
The genebank’s participation in the BOLD (Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods, and Development) Project has been a key driver in upgrading the genebank's data management practices to meet the latest international standards, and contributed significantly to the success of the upload. An important component of this modernization has been the adoption of GRIN Global Community Edition (GGCE). GGCE provides genebanks with tools to manage core conservation activities and associated data.
For Pakistan, the continued adoption of modern genebank information-management practices offers an opportunity to move beyond simply digitizing records. It can help establish more consistent, structured and interoperable data across the collection, making information easier to maintain, update and share through international platforms like Genesys, the ITPGRFA’s Global Information System (GLIS) and FAO WIEWS.
Reaching the 4.5 million accession milestone on Genesys reflects the steady progress toward a unified, searchable registry of the world's conserved crop diversity. By documenting and sharing data on their holdings, national collections like Pakistan's ensure that invaluable crop wild relatives and local landraces are secure, searchable, and ready to support global food security challenges.
Looking Ahead
The addition of more than 40,000 accessions is an important step, but it is only part of the longer-term process of making Pakistan’s conserved plant genetic resources more visible and usable.
The priority going forward is to continue improving the quality, completeness, and interoperability of data while expanding the number of accessions for which reliable information and distribution status are available.
As climate change, new pests and diseases, and the increasing cost of inputs place increasing pressure on crop production, conserving and sharing crop diversity is becoming ever more important. The continued contribution of national genebanks to Genesys represents an important investment in the future resilience of global agriculture.
Explore Plant Genetic Resources Program, NARC, Pakistan on Genesys!