To facilitate the international exchange and use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, uniformity in data description, collection and documentation is instrumental. Descriptors are an essential tool to enable information sharing for crops covered under Annex 1 of the International Treaty. The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (formerly Bioversity International) led the development of strategic key sets of characterization and evaluation descriptors for 22 crops included in Annex I of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).