The genebank of the International Potato Center conserves potato and sweetpotato diversity.
CIP Genebank Website
CIP Genebank Publications
Search Genesys for CIP accessions
CIP’s collections of potato and sweetpotato are the world’s largest and contain nearly all of the potato wild relatives.
The in vitro genebank is the largest in the world and was one of the first genebanks to obtain ISO 17025 certification for safe and secure movement of germplasm.
The crops conserved at CIP are mostly propagated vegetatively, and so most of the accessions are kept as in vitro plants and in cryopreservation for long-term storage. The CIP genebank has been suggested as a center of excellence for cryobanking. The genebank has a large program to move more accessions into cryopreservation.
The CIP genebank also conserves accessions of nine types of Andean root and tuber crops.
The in vitro sweetpotato collection is backed up in Columbia while the in vitro potato collection is backed up in Brazil.
Useful information
Head of genebank: Noelle Anglin
Phytosanitary & quarantine specialist: Brenda Zea
Contact for ordering germplasm: CIP-Germplasm@cgiar.org
Key performance indicators of CGIAR genebanks, 2012-2017
HINT: Use the search key to filter the data. For descriptions of performance indicators, click here.| Indicator | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Total number of accessions | 15,621 | 15,756 | 16,183 | 16,044 | 15,749 | 17,898 |
| 2. Total number of accessions that are currently available | 5,516 | 2,766 | 2,949 | 2,652 | 2,149 | 5,467 |
| 3. Number of seed accessions | 402 | 0 | 68 | 39 | 39 | 4,924 |
| 4. Number of vegetatively-propagated accessions | 14,821 | 14,584 | 13,722 | 13,554 | 13,262 | 12,974 |
| 5. Number of seed accessions held in long-term storage and safety duplicated at two levels | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2,580 |
| 6. Number of vegetatively-propagated accessions in cryopreservation or safety duplicated as in vitro | 10,807 | 9,999 | 9,817 | 12,781 | 13,448 | 9,727 |
| PDCI score | - | - | - | 5.38 | 5.43 | 5.61 |
Genebank operations, 2012-2017
HINT: Use the search key to filter the data| Indicator | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number accessions received | 554 | 1,249 | 255 | 12 | 25 | 50 |
| Number accessions regenerated | 1,337 | 1,599 | 547 | 474 | 537 | 3,463 |
| Number accessions multiplied | 4,208 | 6,586 | 14,751 | 10,358 | 9,860 | 11,291 |
| Number accessions health tested | 1,486 | 1,124 | 968 | 977 | 722 | 958 |
| Number accessions cleaned | 763 | 666 | 404 | 171 | 308 | 469 |
| Number accessions viability tested | 463 | 80 | 753 | 840 | 1,329 | 1,054 |
Number of samples distributed to users within and outside the CGIAR, 2012-2017
HINT: Use the search key to filter the data. For descriptions of performance indicators, click here.| Indicator | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of samples distributed within the CGIAR | 9,068 | 3,342 | 875 | 3,021 | 2,126 | 114 |
| Number of samples distributed outside the CGIAR | 1,639 | 1,434 | 2,219 | 2,293 | 2,026 | 3,523 |
| Total number of samples distributed | 10,707 | 4,776 | 3,094 | 5,314 | 4,152 | 3,637 |
| Number of accessions distributed within the CGIAR | 5,850 | 2,575 | 630 | 2,175 | 2,007 | 112 |
| Number of accessions distributed outside the CGIAR | 994 | 706 | 1,445 | 1,458 | 1,057 | 3,294 |
| Total number of accessions distributed | 6,844 | 3,281 | 2,075 | 3,633 | 3,064 | 3,406 |