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AAre there any climate-related risks? Global conflictSeed banks are becoming a valuable resource that could help to prevent a global food shortage. Two in five of the world’s plant species Are at Risk of ExtinctResearchers estimate that there are approximately. At least 200,000 edible plants species on our planet, we depend on just three – maize, rice and wheat– for more than half of humanity’s caloric intake.
There are approximately 1,700 seed banksGene banks around the globe house collections of plant species. They are essential for scientific research, education and preservation. Protection Indigenous Cultures.
“At a first glance, seeds may not look like much, but within them lies the foundation of our future food and nutrition security, and the possibility for a world without hunger,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving crop diversity for food security. “Well-funded, well-maintained seed banks are critical to reducing the negative impact of the climate crisis on our agriculture globally.”
We take a look at some of the world’s most important seed banks, whose goal isto safeguard biodiversity as it rapidly diminishes.
The doomsday vault
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway
The Svalbard Global seed vault, dubbed the “doomsday vault” or the “Noah’s ark of seeds”, aims to contain a duplicate of every seed housed in other banks across the globe. It is located halfway between Norway and the north pole in the Svalbard archipelago. The hope is that the permafrost and dense rock into which the vault has been sunk will ensure that seed samples remain frozen – although it was 2017 breachedby melting water after high temperatures in this region.
Svalbard can store as many as 4.5 million varieties of crops and 2.5bn in seeds. It holds more than 1.14m samples of approximately 6,000 different species of seeds.
Although it serves the global community in some way, the seed vault is owned and managed by the Norwegian government. It is supported by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an organisation dedicated to preserving crop diversity for food safety.
“Collections of depositing gene banks destroyed by conflict or natural disasters such as fire, earthquakes or flooding can be restored by retrieving copies of those seeds from Svalbard,” Schmitz said. “There is no question that without such a facility we would be risking the security of our future food supply.”
The seed bank that escaped Syria’s war
ICARDA, Beirut (Lebanon)
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas gene bank was originally located in Aleppo. It was destroyed by the Syrian war and forced to close in 2012. It is the only institution to have ever made a withdrawal from Svalbard. The institution used Svalbard to rebuild its collection, which is now split between Lebanon & Morocco. “For us it was invaluable,” said Hassan Machlab, country manager for Lebanon, Jordan & Palestine at ICARDA. “You cannot put a price on this collection.”
Machlab describes the organization’s seed bank as a “sea of genetic material” used to help improve crops globally, producing new varieties with bigger yields and better disease resistance.
The Lebanese operation is primarily dedicated to conserving wild relatives of legumes and cereals. “Wild relatives have adapted to such long periods of different climatic conditions, and they have very interesting genes that we are always trying to explore,” he said. “[These] genes could be useful to improve food production by increasing yield, adapting to climate change, or water scarcity.”
In February, ICARDA deposited 8,000 seeds at the Svalbard seed bank.
The most biodiverse area on the planet
Millennium Seed Bank, Sussex, UK
Founded in 2000 and located in rural Sussex EnglandThe Millennium Seed Bank is regarded as the most diverse wild plant gene resource in the world.
It houses more than 2,500 items in flood-, radiation- and bomb-proof vaults. 2.2.4 billion in seedsAbout 40,000 species. The Millennium Seed Bank contains seeds from almost all of the UK’s native plant species plus collections originating from 189 countriesIt stores almost all of its products in over 100 countries and territories 16% of the world’s wild plant species.
Between 2011 and 2021, it collaborated with the Norwegian government and the Crop Trust on the “Project on crop wild relatives”, an initiative aimed at conserving and using the wild relatives of Priority crops, such as bananas, beans, peas, carrots and apples, to help ensure the world’s future food supplies. During the project, more than 100 scientists collected roughly 4,500 seed samples “from the world’s biodiversity ‘hotspots’ – diversity that might otherwise have been lost forever”, Crop Trust.
The world’s first seed bank
Vavilov Institute, St PetersburgRussia
The Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry, located in St Petersburg in Russia, is one of the oldest seed banks in existence. It was established over 100 years ago by Nikolai Vavilov (Russian botanist and pioneer in crop diversity conservation).
The institute was almost destroyed during the siege on Leningrad in 1940s, but was saved by scientists who kept the species they had been collecting for over 15 years.
By the end of the siege, nine of them had died of starvation rather than eating – and destroying – the collection of crops they were safeguarding. Vavilov was also there. Prisoner starvation led to death1943
The Vavilov Institute today houses more than 325,000 samples of seedIncluding seeds of crops that might otherwise be permanently lost, like Ethiopian wheat, which was almost destroyed in civil wars in 1970s.
The world’s largest seed bank
National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation Fort Collins, Colorado
The US Department of Agriculture runs the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation at Fort Collins. It serves as a backup for genetic material within the US. The facility can store 1.5m sample, of which 50% can be kept inside. Cryogenic tanksIt currently houses more than 500,000 Samples of genetic material from close up to 12,000 plant species
The Fort Collins-based bank distributes seeds to scientists for research and education. It also has the ability to treat and prevent disease resistance. A few seeds from the bank were used to defeat the Russian wheat aphid in Texas in 1980s.
The seed bank is for the preservation of an indigenous culture
The Potato Park in Pisac, Peru
The unique seed bank of the Potato Park, Pisac, Peru is located in a rural village in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
The park is managed by local Indigenous communities and conserves a wide range of Andean crops, including maize andquinoa. However, it has a special focus potatoes and housing around. 2,300 out of the 4,000There are more than 200 varieties of potatoes in the world. Archeologists believe that the potato is the first to have been domesticated. It was 8,000 years agoThe border between Bolivia and Peru is at the riverbank of Lake Titicaca.
The Potato Park is an important project that preserves valuable genetic material. It is also vital territory for the preservation of the Indigenous heritage of six communities. 6,000 peopleThis park is home to many.
