Assessing the impact of CGIAR investments in germplasm collection, conservation, characterization and evaluation: The scope of the literature

The terms of reference for the study to which this paper contributes state that while the impact of CGIAR research in crop germplasm improvement and integrated pest management is well documented, there remain critical gaps in the portfolio of evidence. One of these concerns the impacts of germplasm collection, conservation, characterization and evaluation and the availability of evidence to determine impacts. Compared to literature about the impacts of CGIAR crop breeding programs, the body of published literature about the costs and benefits of genebank collections and the services they provide is both small and narrow in the value components measured. The more theoretical work in this literature has also been of limited relevance to the problems and constraints faced by genebank managers and system-wide bank system. Some of the gray literature produced by experts associated closely with the CGIAR genebanks has been more useful from an operational standpoint, but cannot yet be generalized across crops and collections because of important differences among the cost and benefits of conserving various crops due to their characteristics, bank location, and divergent operational approaches.