In 1971, The Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter was one of Bioversity Internationalﾒs flagship publications. Though no longer published, it has a long history, starting as the Plant Introduction Newsletter in 1957, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). Issues no. 1-24 make up the Plant Introduction Newsletter.

In 1971, with issue no. 25, the name of the publication changed to Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter to highlight the intensification of efforts in the field of genetic conservation, historical studies, collecting missions, documentation and genebank practice happening at the time.