With all that’s been going on in Svalbard, I neglected to note that Africa Rice has just inaugurated its new genebank, the Rice Biodiversity Center for Africa, in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire. Here’s the press release. And here’s a Q&A from a few years back with the genebank manager, Dr Marie-Noëlle Ndjiondjop. This piece from the Genebank Platform gives the background: it’s a sad story with a happy ending, do read it. There’s more information on the genebank on the Platform website. And of course there’s an overview of its holdings in Genesys.