On Dec. 4, 1981, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report on the National Plant Germplasm System, saying that it lacked a sense of direction and purpose and does not have effective, centralized management.

Specific areas which contributed to the problems in collection, storage, and maintenance included: (1) insufficient information on who all of the germplasm curators are and what germplasm exists in storage or in its native environment; (2) insufficient planning to determine what genetic material for crops important to U.S. agriculture should be collected and stored; (3) curators who were supposed to provide permanent backup storage for the germplasm system had sent samples of only about 51 percent of the germplasm they held to the National Seed Storage Laboratory; (4) most of the storage conditions for the working collections were inadequate; (5) particular seeds were in short supply or very old, and this diminished their germination capabilities; (6) the small grains curator and some of the other working collection curators do not have testing equipment to identify when a sudden loss of viability occurs so that germplasm can be replenished; and (7) some curators are behind in replenishing germplasm that is in danger of losing its viability.

The GAO concluded that insufficient management attention by USDA to germplasm collection, storage, and maintenance has endangered germplasm preservation within the United States.