Through plant breeding, researchers have dramatically increased yields, geographic range, disease and pest resistance, tolerance to environmental stress, and quality of nutrients and fibers. ARS, the Department's principal research agency, maintains an active plant breeding program to keep step with continually evolving needs.

The ability to develop new varieties depends on genetic diversity, and wild ancestors and relatives of cultivated plants are the keys to that diversity. But the amount of land where plants grow wild continue to diminish, and many plant species and varieties are disappearing.

Pests such as insects and pathogens have an amazing capacity to break crop resistance. Resistant varieties usually become obsolete in 3 to 10 years. And it generally takes 8 to 11 years to breed new ones in ongoing programs. Breeding would take even longer if we didn't have the National Plant Germplasm System.

What is the NPGS?

The NPGS is a network of organizations and people dedicated to preserving the genetic diversity of crop plants. It is managed by USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in close cooperation with the states.

What Does It Do?

The NPGS collects, evaluates, catalogs, preserves, and distributes plant germplasm from all over the world.

What is Plant Germplasm?

Plant germplasm is living tissue from which new plants can be grown--seed or another plant part such as a leaf, a piece of stem, pollen or even just a few cells that can be cultured into a whole plant. Plant germplasm contains the genetic information for the plant's heredity makeup.

Why Have an NPGS?

Germplasm collections are essential to plant breeders, for they provide the raw genetic material from which new varieties are bred. Without the NPGS, many wild relatives and ancestors of economically important crops would be lost and the gene pool for plants would shrink dangerously.

Where Does NPGS Get Germplasm?

Most NPGS-sponsored plant exploration takes place outside the United States because few commonly cultivated crop species are native to North America north of Mexico. Recent expeditions have gone to the high South American plateaus for potato relatives, to North Africa for wild wheat, and to southwest Asia for alfalfa.

How Do the Collections Help the World?

Researchers and plant breeders around the world have access to the 450,000 plant introductions in the NPGS collections. Each year, nearly 10,000 new accessions are added to the system. Germplasm users in other countries have the same privileges as those in the United States. Altogether the various collections in the National Plant Germplasm System ship over 150,000 items (packages of seeds and other plant materials) to users in the United States and in over 100 foreign countries each year.