Flows of Crop Germplasm Resources into/out of China

Abstract: Introduction of foreign crop germplasm to promote food production is of great importance to China. A large number of crop genetic resources—rice, wheat, maize, potato, and sweet potato—are introduced into China from around the world every year, mostly from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Centres. China has also made great contribution to the world by providing many crop genetic resources, such as soybean, to the CGIAR Centres and other countries. China benefits significantly from the flows of crop genetic resources into the country and should, therefore, cooperate further with CGIAR Centres and other countries, consider accession to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, enhance the integrated management of crop genetic resources, regulate their flows into/out of China, and develop a sharing mechanism to facilitate the sharing of them.