Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced to set up India’s second National Gene Bank with 10 lakh germplasm lines in the Union Budget 2025-26.
Key Highlights
- This bank will be set up for future food and nutritional security and provide conservation support to both public and private sectors for genetic resources.
- A gene bank preserves and stores genetic material, including seeds, tissues and DNA samples from various plant and animal species.
- These are preserved in order to protect them from potential extinction and preserve vital varieties for future generations.
- India’s first gene bank was set up in 1996 by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR) in New Delhi.
- This bank is comprised of 12 regional stations across the country for collection and storage of vital crop germplasms.
- These germplasms are the genetic constituents of plants or animals that is used in research, conservation and crop breeding. It is a bio-repository that stores plant and animal genetic material.
