On Nov. 17, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announced the National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan in support of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) U.S. National Plant Germplasm System’s (NPGS) mission.

The genebanks currently maintain more than 617,000 unique kinds of plant germplasm from more than 100 different crops and distribute over 200,000 samples of that germplasm yearly for research, education and breeding purposes.