Gene banks were established in an effort to mitigate the risks of monoculture—the practice of cultivating a single crop over a wide area of land—and they have since become the centres of ex situ (off-site) conservation.


The International Board of Plant Genetic Resources (now called Biodiversity International) was established in 1974 by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Its mandate was to coordinate a worldwide network of plant genetic resource centres to expand the collection, conservation, documentation, evaluation, and use of plant germplasm.

While most genetic diversity lies in the global south, of the 127 base collections of IBPGR, 81 are in the countries of the global north and 29 are in the CGIAR system, which is controlled by the governments of the global north. Only 17 are in the national collections of the southern countries. Of the 81 base collections present in the north, 10 are in the hands of the countries that fund IBPGR.

Although monocultures are promoted for cultivation by farmers, the ex-situ gene banks conserve the germplasm, but this is largely a one-way collection. It excludes the farmers' critical role as conservers of genetic diversity and innovators in the use and development of biodiversity.