The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Plant Genetic Resources Network is a portal for Plant Genetic Resource (PGR) organisations within the SADC region. The purpose for this website is on one hand to facilitate communication between all the plant genetic resource (PGR) centres the regional SADC Plant Genetic Resources Centre (SPGRC) and the National  Plant Genetic Resource Centres (NPGRCs) and their staff and associated resource persons, and on the other hand, provide other organisations involved in conservation as well as the general public with information on the activities in the SADC region. 

Each of the PGR centres in sixteen SADC Member States, as well as the regional centre (SPGRC) has its own area in the portal. The data presented is partly provided as static pages containing descriptions of the background, activities, material and contacts of each centre, and starting from 2016, SPGRC has developed a dynamic, searchable web-based SPGRC Documentation & Information System database, (web-SDIS). The search engines to the database information include, in addition to the traditional form based interface, a Geographic Information System (GIS) based interface that allows searches based on geographic maps of regions where collections have been made.

 

The forum section of the portal provides general and specialised discussion fora. Some discussion groups are open to (readable by) the public while others are internal to the SADC PGRs and their staff. Posting on the lists require registration.