In plant breeding programmes, the entire collection (of plants/seeds) having all the diverse alleles for all genes in a given crop is called

Genetic variability is the root of any breeding programme. In many crops pre- existing genetic variability is available from wild relatives of the crop. Collection and preservation of all the different wild varieties, species and relatives of the cultivated species (followed by their evaluation for their characteristics) is a pre-requisite for effective exploitation of natural genes available in the populations. The entire collection (of plants/seeds) having all the diverse alleles for all genes in a given crop is called germplasm collection.