The National Gene Fund constituted by Government of India under section 45 of the Plant varieties Act, 2001. Amongst other things, the fund is also utilized for supporting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources including in-situ and ex-situ collections.  

• As per provisions of section 70 (2)(a) of the PPV&FR Rules, 2003, the Govt. of India in consultation with the Authority instituted the Plant Genome Savior Community Award (five awards of Rs.10 lakhs each).  
• This is being awarded since 2009-10, to the farming community / farmers, particularly of the tribal and rural areas engaged in conservation, improvement and preservation of genetic resources of economic plants and their wild relatives in the areas of agro-biodiversity hotspots (22 Agro-biodiversity hotspots distributed over 7 agro-ecological zones).  
• The Government of India has notified the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights (Recognition and Reward from the Gene Fund) Rules, 2012, whereby a farmer who is engaged in the conservation of genetic resources of land races and wild relatives of economic plants and their improvement through selection and preservation shall be entitled to “Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Reward & Farmer Recognition” along with cash prize from National Gene Fund.  
• There are 10 rewards each comprising of citation, memento and cash of Rs. One and half lakh each and 20 recognitions each consisting of a cash prize of Rs. One Lakh, citation and memento in a year. 

Source: Ministry of Science & Technology