Till date PPV&FR Authority- a Central agency which acts as seed bank has registered 1597 farmers varieties and certificates of registration have been issued, said Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar in Rajya Sabha.
Further, the Protection of Plant Varieties &Farmers Right Authority annually confers 35 Awards amounting to Rs.85 lakhs to farmer(s)/ farming communities engaged in conservation of plant genetic resources.
ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi is conserving seed germplasm for long-term conservation (at -20°C) in its National Genebank (NGB), Tomar informed.
As on 30.06.2019, NGB is holding 4,41,253 accessions belonging to 1948 species including 83394 accessions of landraces/ primitive varieties, minister revealed.