World's 2nd-largest refurbished gene bank inaugurated

• The centre was inaugurated at National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa in New by Delhi Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister.
• The Gene Bank was established in 1996 to preserve the seeds of Plant Genetic Resources for future generations.
• It has the capacity to preserve about ten lakh germplasm in the form of seeds.

Gene Bank

• Gene banks are repositories where biological material is collected, stored, catalogued and made available for redistribution.
• The main role of plant gene banks is to preserve genetic diversity, in the form of seeds or cuttings in the case of plants reproduced vegetatively, and subsequently make this material, together with associated information, available for future use in research and plant breeding.
• Gene banks are sometimes also referred to as an ex-situ conservation facility (because biological materials are conserved outside their natural habitat).

National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources

• The ‘Division of Plant Introduction’ (estd 1961) was upgraded as ‘National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources’ (NBPGR) in 1977 on the recommendations of the ‘High Level Committee’ set up in 1970.
• It is one of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institutes.
• It is a nodal organisation in India for management of Plant Genetic Resources (PGR).
• NBPGR played a pivotal role in the improvement of various crop plants and diversification and development of agriculture in India through germplasm introduction from various institutes/organizations located in foreign countries and germplasm collection from within the country and abroad and conservation thereof.

National Gene Bank (Plant)

• National Gene Bank was notified in 1996-97.
• It is housed in National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi.
• Purpose: To conserve the Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) for future generations in the form of seeds, genomic resources, pollen etc.
• It stores different crop groups such as cereals, millets, medicinal and aromatic plants and narcotics, etc.
• Presently, it is protecting four lakh 52 thousand accessions, of which over two lakh are Indian germplasm.