Seed Sovereignty Initiative

USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) maintains extensive and diverse seed and germplasm collections, providing the foundation for current and future crop varieties used by American farmers.

• Seeds underpin the Nation’s food supply and U.S. competitiveness in global commodity markets, including corn, soybean, wheat, and cotton.
• Improved crop traits derived from NPGS collections are critical to domestic food production and agricultural export competitiveness.
• U.S. seed collections are highly valued by domestic industry and producers for their quality, diversity, and long-term breeding potential.

To secure U.S. seed sovereignty, USDA must modernize the National Plant Germplasm System and build a super intelligence-ready genomic data infrastructure. USDA-led seed sovereignty will:

• Ensure continued U.S. leadership in agricultural productivity and innovation.
• Strengthen America’s food security and ensure U.S. producers are not dependent on foreign-controlled seed systems.
• Preserve a secure domestic source of seeds and crop traits critical to U.S. agriculture and export competitiveness.

This initiative will invest in USDA’s National Plant Germplasm System, which houses more than 600,000 accessions representing over 16,000 species. USDA will sequence these collections to unlock the tremendous potential of the genetic resources the United States holds and identify critical gaps.