Data, Duplication, and Decentralisation: Gene Bank Management in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

In the 1970s, the number of accessions held in national and international seed and gene banks increased steadily. This growth, initially a source of pride, was recognised as a liability by the 1980s. Too many accessions lacked the basic information necessary for researchers to access and use samples knowledgably. Many gene banks came under scrutiny for poor management practices and several found themselves accused of mishandling a ‘global patrimony’ entrusted to their care. In this paper, I explore one response to these concerns that attracted attention from many in the germplasm conservation community: creating linked, standardised databases of collections. Calls for more and better data about accessions often emphasised that these data would make collections easier to use and therefore more valued. Here I take a close look at the early history of data collation and standardisation as a means of ‘rationalising’ collections, a motivation that was not advertised as prominently. This historical example shows the infrastructures developed to facilitate data exchange in the context of seed and gene banking to have been tied up with both mundane imperatives to cut costs and lofty goals of building political bridges—in addition to the often-repeated ambition of making plant breeding more efficient.