About the Crop Germplasm Committees
Crop Germplasm Committee (CGC) is the generic name for a specific national working group of specialists providing analysis, data and recommendations on genetic resources within a specific crop or group of related crops of present or future economic importance.
These committees represent their user community. Their membership consists of representation from federal, state, and private sectors; representation from various scientific disciplines; and geographical representation for the crop(s).
Crop Germplasm Committees are concerned with critical issues facing the NPGS including:
- Identifying gaps in U.S. collections and developing proposals to fill these gaps through exchange and collaborative collecting trips.
- Assisting crop curators in identifying duplication in the collections.
- Prioritizing traits for evaluation and developing proposals to implement the evaluations.
- Assisting crop curators and GRIN personnel in correcting passport data and ensuring that standardized, accurate and useful information is entered into the GRIN database.
- Assisting in germplasm regeneration projects.
- Identifying closed out programs and other germplasm collections in danger of being lost and developing plans to rescue the important material in these programs.
- Working with quarantine officials to identify and ensure new techniques for pathogen identification which will assist in the expeditious release of plant germplasm.
- Maintaining current reports on the status of their crops for the Congress, ARS National Program Staff and Administrators, State administrators and other key individuals involved with the NPGS.
- Evaluating the potential benefits and problems associated with the development and use of core subsets.
CGC Role & Responsibilities
Template for Crop Vulnerability Statements
Forty-Two Crop Germplasm Committees provide support to the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS).