**1. Introduction**

Plant genetic resources date to about 10,000 years ago when man invented agriculture. People started differentiating variations in plants and later domesticated them through natural means of selection [1]. These plants became our foremost crops. Our planet houses around 310,000 described species of plants and possibly an overall estimate of 400,000 species. About 5000 plants have been harnessed by modern man for food, clothes, shelter, and other needs. And as our population increases, we become increasingly dependent on plants for survival. Today about 150 plant species are what humans dearly need for food and essential needs with only about 12 of those plants proving 80% of the world's food. Some of them are wheat, rice, barley, oats, millet, cotton seed, potato, cassava, yam, soybean, common beans, tomatoes, onion, sugarcane, melon, banana, and others [2].

This diversity of species is concentrated into areas of unusual richness and exhibits variation at both a global and a regional scale. The taxonomic diversity of plants is usually highest in the tropic with high amount of rainfall. The species found in one habitat can be used to identify the characteristics of the conservation priorities of that habitat which also mirrors the uniqueness of the ecosystem. For us to achieve measurable progress, a range of actors will need to generate, access, integrate, and synthesize data that is widely dispersed across organizational and international boundaries, and

work through international partnerships that bring together complex portfolios of skills, sources of information, and perspectives [3, 4].

Over the years, plant conservation has often been reduced to an activity for government agencies involved in forestry management. Halewood et al. [3], outlined the benefits of establishing a conservation center for plants. They include promoting an integrated approach to plant conservation; utilizing and promoting professional skills; developing collaborative relationships with protected area networks, government agencies, parastatals; and the omics revolution in the biological sciences has considerable potential for changing the flows of information, the nature of partnerships, and the range of products that can be generated through plant genetic resource conservation.

In germplasm conservation, the method of collection initially captures maximum variation of plant materials. This procedure can be carried out either in the wild or controlled environment [5]. Ex situ conservation is reliable usually in seed banks, where they are cryopreserved. Additionally, technologies for generating and analyzing large quantities of genotypic, phenotypic, and environmental data are evolving at accelerating rates, so too are technologies and methods for synthesizing genetic materials [6].

## **2. Utilization of plant genetic resources in food sustainability**

The sustainable use of genetic resources is critical to food security and sustainability. Globally, the improvement of food production has been successful. However, biodiversity seems to have been neglected. Biodiversity influences food production, as it ensures adequate and quality soil for optimum productivity and supplies invaluable genetic resources for all crops [7].

The world has been struggling to provide quality nutrition and access to safe water and eradicating all forms of malnutrition according to the sustainable millennium goals (SDGs). In 2020, an estimated 811 million people faced hunger attributed majorly to COVID-19 pandemic. Another report predicted that if global food security is not treated as a matter of urgency an additional 660 million people may suffer from hunger by 2030 [8].

Humans' inalienable rights would be realized when there is enough food for sustenance. From a broader aspect, it is pertinent for countries to provide access or means to sufficient food and potable water for their citizens. Great strides need to be shown in boosting food production, providing genetic resources, and widening the biodiversity of food crops. Government needs to enact favorable laws and policies and create solid institutional framework to ensure the access to genetic resources and agricultural materials. As no country can adequately sustain food production without a robust and sustainable genetic resource [8].

Molecular tools have proven to overcome some of the bottlenecks experienced in agriculture. Molecular techniques have continued to answer previously unanswered questions in taxonomy, breeding, etc. Techniques, such as the use of microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) are efficiently used in diversity study and in pest and disease resistance, high yield and salt and drought tolerance breeding programs [9, 10].
