Bonn, Germany
19 March 2025
In line with its mission to ensure the long-term conservation and availability of all crop diversity, the Crop Trust has launched the Power of Diversity Funding Facility (PDFF). This transformative multi-donor funded initiative will promote the use of so-called opportunity crops across Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Opportunity crops hold great untapped potential to change farmers’ lives, but have been neglected by research and development. The PDFF aims to change that.
Backed by an initial investment of €10 million from Germany and €2 million from Ireland, the PDFF will empower farmers to diversify their agricultural systems with resilient and nutritious alternatives to mainstream crops. The German funding will come via KfW, the German Development Bank, and Ireland is providing funding through its Department of Foreign Affairs. During the Power of Diversity Funding Facility launch moment at the UN Desertification Conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2024, initial funders of the PDFF highlighted the benefits of the project.
Speaking at the event, Maria Wichmann of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) said, “Smallholders should be the ultimate beneficiaries of this initiative. We need to make sure that they have the freedom of choice... Strengthening international, national and local seed banks to ensure the diversity of crops, and, in particular, the conservation and use of underutilized crops is of great importance.”
Gerry Cunningham, Ambassador of Ireland to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, underscored the importance of these crops by saying, “There is a growing recognition of the importance of investing in neglected and underutilized opportunity crops... These crops hold untapped potential to revolutionize agriculture by diversifying production systems, enhancing resilience against climate change and improving agro-ecosystem health. Opportunity crops also offer a high nutritional value such as excellent sources of micronutrients, protein, energy and fiber.”
What Are Opportunity Crops?
Opportunity crops are plant species with untapped potential to enhance food and nutritional security. Many of these crops, often cultivated by smallholder farmers, are highly nutritious, resilient to harsh climates, and require minimal resources to thrive. However, despite their benefits, they remain under-researched and under-invested. This leaves farmers, investors and policymakers without the data needed to scale their adoption.
The PDFF builds on the Crop Trust’s ongoing efforts to champion opportunity crops through initiatives like BOLDER. Funded by the Government of Norway, BOLDER works to secure the diversity of these crops, and make it available to smallholder farmers in four African countries.
To provide a foundation of knowledge, the Crop Trust has launched an Opportunity Crop Knowledge Base with key information on the crops prioritized by BOLDER partners. This can help food system advocates, researchers and policymakers better understand the potential of these species and how to integrate them into sustainable food systems.
A Global Effort
Initially, the PDFF will focus on 14 high-potential opportunity crops in seven countries, which will be announced when project partners are confirmed. Additional funding can extend the project’s reach to more countries and more crops, driving a shift towards resilient and sustainable agrifood systems worldwide.
“This initiative represents a critical step in harnessing the power of crop diversity to combat some of the most pressing challenges of our time. By focusing on these relatively neglected crops, we are opening economic opportunities for farmers and delivering benefits to communities while safeguarding the future of food,” said Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. The PDFF is managed by the Crop Trust and will collaborate with the World Vegetable Center’s Global Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan (2025–2035) to further its efforts in securing and using crop diversity.
About the Crop Trust
The Crop Trust is an international organization working to conserve crop diversity and thus protect global food and nutrition security. At the core of Crop Trust is an endowment fund dedicated to providing guaranteed long-term financial support to key genebanks worldwide. The Crop Trust supports the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and coordinates large-scale projects worldwide to secure crop diversity and make it available for use, globally forever and for the benefit of everyone. The Crop Trust is recognized as an essential element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Learn more at www.croptrust.org
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