Center for Arid Farming and Conservation Agriculture Research`s

  Department of Genetic Resources: It is concerned with studies of breeding and plant improvement for crops which grown under dryland conditions and supplementary irrigation conditions with the aim of developing drought-tolerant varieties and general environmental tension in the region, as well as the activity of seed production and gene bank of natural genetic resources in Nineveh Governorate, seed management, storage and circulation.

The department aims to:
1- Developing modern scientific methods for propagating and sustaining seed varieties and improving their quantitative and qualitative traits.
2- Propagation of seeds of higher grades of grain crops.
3- Providing seeds of approved and high-productivity varieties and releasing them within the reach of farmers.
4- Improving local crops through hybridization with genetic resources carefully introduced and selected from international centers and organizations and carrying traits that withstand environmental stress.
5- Protecting local plant genetic assets, especially endangered in Iraq, through the establishment of a gene bank in accordance with international standards and study of the genetic diversity of wild plants in Iraqi environment.
6- Developing the database of genetic assets through the introduction, propagation and exchange of local and endemic genetic assets with accredited international centers and organizations.