Colombia will continue modernizing the registration and tracking of its plant genetic resources with the support of the Crop Trust

• The Colombian National Plant Germplasm Bank was selected to participate in “Digitize Genebanks,” an initiative led by the Crop Trust that will further improve how collections conserved in the country are recorded, tracked, and accessed.

  

Mosquera, Cundinamarca. September 9, 2026. Information on the collections held by Colombia’s Plant Germplasm Bank will begin to be managed through GRIN-Global Community Edition (GGCE). This specialized system will gradually replace the current information system and spreadsheet use and will help track each accession.

This change is part of “Digitize Genebanks,” an effort led by the Crop Trust that benefits genebanks in Latin America and Africa.

This effort is part of “Securing Our Seeds,” a Crop Trust project aimed at modernizing information management in national genebanks. Its purpose is to safeguard collection data through modern platforms that support genebank operations and enable access to data associated with their collections.

The community edition of GRIN-Global (GGCE) provides genebanks with a modern, free, open-source software system to digitize operations, accurately track agrobiodiversity collections, and seamlessly share vital crop diversity data worldwide.

This new platform will connect to Genesys, a free global online portal that, within the framework of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), enables users to search and explore data on plant genetic resources and crop diversity conserved in genebanks worldwide.

Over the next three years, the Colombian National Plant Germplasm Bank (BGV, for its Spanish acronym), managed by AGROSAVIA, will install GGCE, upgrade its technological infrastructure, and migrate its collection data. The Crop Trust will support data validation and train the responsible teams.

 

Five Months, Two Concrete Advances

Since the beginning of the project, the BGV has worked on two fronts: training curators to digitally record routine procedures previously carried out using spreadsheets or GRIN-Global through GGCE, and adapting GGCE to AGROSAVIA’s technological infrastructure.

Beyond spreadsheet-based data recording, adopting GGCE offers a modern solution that will enable digital traceability in in vitro operations.

The curators responsible for the BGV’s in vitro conservation and documentation systems conducted a technical visit to the Cassava Genebank of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). There, they learned methods for recording data on the routine management, monitoring, conservation, and cryopreservation of accessions.

The exchange also covered digital processes for distributing plant material and recording health testing in GRIN-Global.

In June, the team received one week of specialized training in GGCE at the Tibaitatá Research and Technology Transfer Center. This training will support the organization of a digital workflow that records every activity performed on accessions and reduces reliance on spreadsheets.

The next step will be to develop, in 2027, a procedures manual for the digital management of collections conserved in vitro.

 

GGCE Adapts to AGROSAVIA’s Infrastructure

The installation of the system presented a technical challenge. The solution initially used by GGCE did not comply with AGROSAVIA’s security policies. With support from the Crop Trust, an alternative based on Internet Information Services (IIS), a technology compatible with the Corporation’s infrastructure, was adapted.

The process began with a local installation using BGV records available until 2019. The tool was then moved to institutional development servers, where the necessary conditions were prepared and functionality, stability, and robustness tests were conducted in preparation for its future deployment into production, between 2024 and 2025.

The tests required reviewing record structures, verifying data integrity, and correcting inconsistencies. They also demonstrated the need to adopt common criteria so that centers and collections record data consistently.

The security vulnerabilities identified during implementation were reported to the GGCE development team and corrected in subsequent versions of the tool before its institutional deployment.

 

The Next Challenge: Migrating Reliable Data

BGV curators, AGROSAVIA’s information technology teams, and Crop Trust specialists continue to validate the procedures required to make GGCE the primary platform for managing information and routine activities associated with the conservation of BGV collections in the field, in vitro, as seed, and through documentation.

The goal goes beyond installing a new platform. Each accession must have consistent, traceable, and accessible information to guide its conservation, support research, and respond to requests for material conserved in the BGV.

Over the coming months, efforts will focus on preparing for data migration and agreeing on common rules for data recording. The quality of this information will determine whether the plant collections conserved in the BGV can be located, studied, and used with greater precision to address current challenges such as food security and climate change.