In today's world, there is significant pressure to improve agricultural production by developing food crops that can not only adapt to environmental changes, but also meet the growing food demands of a constantly increasing population. The current food crisis has added to this challenge and highlighted the vulnerability that exists with our food supply systems. Germplasm, specifically plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, are the living material used by local communities, researchers, and breeders to adapt food and agricultural production to changing needs. Maintaining and using the global pool of genetic diversity will be the foundation for managing both climate change and the current food crisis. Most Pacific Island countries depend heavily on the agricultural sector for employment, food security, and nutritional well-being. Agriculture is also becoming an important source of new market products, often through the use of what are commonly known as under-utilized species, such as breadfruit. Food and nutritional security and finding new markets all rely on using germplasm. This paper focuses on these challenging issues, essentially in the Pacific region, and the contribution that germplasm development and exchange can make to the solutions. It also raises important questions as to the prerequisites for germplasm development and exchange, such as availability and accessibility. Effective and efficient conservation systems, accurate and reliable virus testing procedures, use of genomic-based approaches providing more information to facilitate development, and finally, reliable and transparent mechanisms for exchange are all essential to ensure that germplasm development can take place.
