On 12 September 2026, ICRISAT secured long-term funding from the Crop Trust to conserve key legume collections, supporting breeders developing higher-yielding and more resilient crops.[1] ICRISAT’s wider mandate covers 11 crop species, including sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, pigeonpea, chickpea and finger millet; prior Crop Trust–Germany support regenerated and multiplied more than 5,600 accessions in India and Niger.[2][5]
The funding model is as important as the seeds: Crop Trust long-term grants cover core genebank operations, allowing specialists to maintain viability, characterize traits and distribute material rather than repeatedly diverting capacity to emergency fundraising.[5] These drought-adapted crops are high-value candidates for lunar agriculture because they address water scarcity, thermal stress, nutritional diversity and dependence on fragile terrestrial supply chains.
The Ark team should establish an ICRISAT liaison and inventory all relevant accessions, genomic data, regeneration protocols and safety-duplicate locations. Prioritize lunar cultivation trials for sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea, pigeonpea and groundnut; require at least two geographically independent terrestrial backups plus an off-world preservation pathway, and track Crop Trust endowment commitments, Svalbard deposits and accession viability at five-year intervals.