The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries operates the “Gene Bank Project” aiming at conserving and propagating seeds and plants which are materials for developing new plant varieties. NCSS serves as one of sub-banks to the central national gene bank of National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) (hereinafter referred to as "the Central Bank") in the “Gene Bank Project”. NCSS conserves germ plasms of potatoes, fruit trees, tea trees, industrial crops, etc. and investigates characteristics of the plants with the purpose of collecting necessary data for fully utilizing them as genetic resources.

NCSS also multiplies the seeds which are conserved at the Center Bank to renew and replenish them in the “Gene Bank Project”.

�T Conservation of vegetative crops

There are much difficulty for the Central Bank to conserve vegetative crops with their facilities, because vegetative crops need large area of field for conservation. Therefore, conservation of such vegetative crops is entrusted to NCSS with utilizing large area of fields at its stations according to climate conditions.

�U Examination of characteristics

Examination of characteristics of plant genetic resources collected and conserved by the Central Bank is very important activity of the “Gene Bank Project”, because breeding of new plant varieties can not be done successfully without data of characteristics of material plants. NCSS conducts characteristic examination of plants conserved in close cooperation with the Central Bank.

1. Primary characteristics: morphological characteristics necessary for identifying strains

2. Secondary characteristics: tolerance to pests and diseases, tolerance to lesions, maternal characteristics and other characteristics, which are important for the usage of breeding materials

3. Tertiary characteristics: characteristics such as productivity and content of specific components

�V Remultiplication of seeds

The plant genetic resources, namely seeds in the Central Bank and the sub-banks are necessary to be regularly remultiplied because their amount decreases after distibution based on request by research institutes and their germination rate decreases during strage. NCSS remultiplies seeds of wheat, barley, beans, etc. in close cooperation with the Central Bank.