History
Activities related to the collection, preservation, description and evaluation of properties, and regeneration of continental fruit species began to be carried out in 2006 at the then Croatian Center for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (today's Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food), when they started planting traditional varieties of fruit species. A collection of autochthonous plum varieties from Slavonia and Lika was planted in an experimental orchard in Donja Zelina in the fall of 2009.
Activities continue in 2007 at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture within the SEEDNet (South East European Development Network on Plant Genetic Resources) program in the form of collecting apple samples. In the following year, 2008, a collection apple orchard was planted at the Šašinovečki Lug faculty experimental site. In 2012, the monograph Balkan Pomology Apples was published as part of the SEEDNet program, in which 9 apple varieties from Croatia were described.
The intensification of activities began with collecting expeditions in 2013, which resulted in the planting of the National Collection of continental fruit species in 2014 at the experimental orchard of the then Croatian Center for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (today's Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food) in Donja Zelina.
In 2019, a safety collection of continental fruit species was planted at the experimental orchard of the Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek at the Klisa location.
From 2007 until today, a large number of collection expeditions have been organized.
The aforementioned activities are currently financed from the funds of the "National Program for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources" (Ministry of Agriculture) and Submeasure 10.2. "Conservation, sustainable use and development of genetic resources in agriculture".
