The Plant Genetic Resources Division was established in Bhutan in response to 1997 BAP I while BAP I was formulated in response to Bhutan’s ratification of CBD by the 73^rd session of the National Assembly.  The 1997 BAP I on “Plant Genetic Resources” states that ‘where such facilities do not exist in the country, they should be developed, where desired’. Therefore, in view of the paramount importance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, the PGR Division was established under the National Biodiversity Centre for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) in the country considering the decline of traditional crop diversity in the country due to many complex factors namely urbanization, displacement of crop varieties, change in cropping system, etc.

The on-farm conservation of PGRFA was initiated in 2001 through a project called the Biodiversity Use and Conservation in Asia Program (BUCAP) project supported by Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE). This was followed by the Integrated Livestock and Crop Conservation Program (ILCCP) project in 2007 with funding support from UNDP-GEF that supported on-farm conservation and sustainable utilization of NUS like buckwheat and soybean.

Similarly, a project on diversification and crop improvement of rice was implemented under the framework of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) through the fourth cycle of benefit-sharing fund that was implemented from 2013 to 2015 and the HANAS project funded by BTFEC (2014-2017) that supported on-farm conservation and sustainable use of finger millet through product development, value addition, and marketing.

These on-farm conservation projects focused on the promotion of traditional PGRFA diversity through crop improvement, Participatory Varietal Selection (PVS), product development, value addition, and marketing thereby contributing to the livelihood of the farming community and the maintenance of diversity in the field.

The National Plant Genebank was operationalized in 2005 for ex-situ conservation and sustainable utilization of rich PGRFA diversity through funding support from the Royal Government of Netherlands under the Framework of Sustainable Development Agreement. The germplasm are processed as per the international genebank protocols which was further validated through technical assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2013. The Security Backup Genebank at ARDC Wengkhar was established in 2015 with funding support from the European Union Sector Support Project (EUSSP) and Rice project to mitigate the risk of loss of germplasm collections to natural or man-made catastrophes. Further, in 2016, the Genebank was upgraded with the procurement and establishment of In vitro and Cryo-preservation facilities with financial support from EU-GCCA for the conservation of horticultural crops and those crops that are propagated vegetatively.

Subsequently, the National Plant Genebank also implemented the Integrated Management of Plant Genetic Resources project (IMPGR) (2016- 2017) supported by AFACI, focusing on phenotypic characterization of rice and capacity building of genebank staff.

On the policy front, the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative (GRPI II) project was implemented with financial and technical support from Bioversity International which supported policy, awareness, and research work on the implementation of the Multilateral System (MLS) from 2013 to 2015.