Global Seed Vault Receives Largest Deposit, Ensuring Crop Diversity Amidst Climate Change and Conflict
| |
Safeguarding seeds is crucial for maintaining biodiversity, food security, and environmental resilience. A diverse seed bank can help ensure a stable food supply, even in the face of climate change and other challenges. Seed banks and genebanks where the world's seeds are stored provide a reservoir of genetic material for plant breeders to develop new crop varieties with desirable traits such as higher yields, disease resistance, and improved nutritional value.
As agriculture and food production grapple with significant challenges from climate change, food insecurity, pandemics, and human conflict, a seed vault buried deep in permafrost in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard emerges as a powerful symbol of international cooperation and hope for humanity. Located on top of the world in Platåberget mountain, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault holds the most diverse collection of food crop seeds worldwide.
The Global Seed Vault is the world's largest backup facility for crop seeds. It stores duplicates of 1,331,458 seed samples from almost every country globally, including those from seed collections and gene banks from around the globe. Since its opening in 2008, thousands of seeds have arrived at the Global Seed Vault, often called the “Doomsday Vault."
Crop Diversity for Food Security
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a significant international initiative to preserve the world's crop diversity which is essential for food security, environmental sustainability, and scientific advancement. By safeguarding the seed sample collection, the Global Seed Vault ensures the availability of genetic resources to address future challenges such as climate change, pests, and diseases. Crop diversity is also important for developing resilient crop varieties that can withstand environmental stresses and provide nutritious food for a growing global population.
According to The State of the World’s Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), out of 20,000 edible plants and 6,000 that have historically been used as food, fewer than 200 now make a major contribution to food production, and just nine account for two-thirds of food production.
Doomsday Vault Home to 1.3M Duplicate Seeds
The Global Seed Vault was opened on February 26, 2008. Then Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, unlocked the Global Seed Vault and placed the first seeds for storage. The inaugural deposit to the Global Seed Vault consisted of 320,000 seeds from over 100 countries, including staple varieties such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, sorghum, eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato.
On October 22, 2024, the Global Seed Vault received a historically large deposit of more than 30,000 new seed samples from 23 depositors across 21 countries, including seven international and regional genebanks from the Philippines, Mexico, India, Morocco, Taiwan, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Peru. This deposit included rice, wheat, maize, pearl millet, sorghum, chickpea, barley, lentils, sweet potatoes, rye, tomatoes, beans, okra, peppers, beans, vegetables, and herbs. The deposit also included first-time contributions from genebanks in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Chad, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Suriname. This batch of seeds is one of the largest additions to the Global Seed Vault since its opening in 2008.
Noteworthy Deposits to the Global Seed Vault in October 2024
- India: The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) genebank based in India deposited 2,950 seeds of 56 species, including pearl millet, sorghum, and 28 different Arachis — wild relatives of the peanut (groundnut), nine of which are new to the Seed Vault.
- Bolivia: The 400-year-old Universidad Mayor Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, one of the oldest universities in the Americas, made Bolivia’s first-ever deposit to the Global Seed Vault, safely duplicating maize and bean varieties deeply tied to Indigenous cultures.
- Philippines: The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) deposited over 7,000 rice samples, the largest number of samples in this deposit. The country’s national genebank — National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory — deposited nearly 1,000 seeds of 14 crops, including sorghum and okra.
- Chad: A newcomer to the Seed Vault, the Institut Tchadien de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement deposited 1,145 samples of sesame, rice, maize, and sorghum. This contribution is particularly significant, as these crop varieties are adapted to Chad’s harsh climate, and therefore crucial for developing crops that can withstand increasing temperatures and erratic rainfall.
- Tanzania: The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) genebank in Tanzania deposited over 100 accessions of vegetables and other crops.
In addition to these deposits, Sudan’s Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre (APGRC) prepared hundreds of samples of sorghum and pearl millet seeds with support from the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) Project. Genebank staff assembled the seeds despite the war raging in the country and the lack of access to the main national genebank in Wad Medani. The seeds will be transferred to Svalbard in February 2025. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Palestine delivered seeds of 21 species of vegetables, legumes, and herbs.
Global Seed Vault Founders Named 2024 World Food Prize Laureates
In May 2024, two scientists who played key roles in establishing the Global Seed Vault — Dr. Geoffrey Hawtin OBE, Founding Director and Executive Board member at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Dr. Cary Fowler, currently the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, were named the 2024 World Food Prize Laureates. They were chosen by the World Food Prize Laureate Selection Committee for their longstanding contribution to seed conservation and crop biodiversity.
Drs. Fowler and Hawtin also played pivotal roles in developing the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, or Plant Treaty, which was adopted in 2001, to facilitate the global movement of plant genetic resources. By codifying international agreements and mechanisms for the sharing of seeds, the treaty laid the foundations for the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
How the Global Seed Vault Works
Seedboxes in the Global Seed Vault are stored under "black box conditions," meaning the depositors retain ownership rights over the seeds that they sent, and they are the only ones who can withdraw their seeds. While the seeds are stored in the Global Seed Vault, only NordGen personnel are allowed to handle the seed boxes.
In the Global Seed Vault, seeds from seed collections and gene banks from around the globe are kept for long-term storage to contribute to securing the world’s food supply. The Global Seed Vault can store 4.5 million seed samples at -18°C (-0.4°F). The permafrost and thick rock formation surrounding the Global Seed Vault ensure that the seed samples remain frozen, even without external power. Each seed sample is meticulously packaged in three-ply foil and stored in sealed boxes on shelves within the vault. The low temperature and humidity within the vault significantly reduce metabolic activity, allowing the seeds to remain viable for centuries.
Established and owned by Norway, it is operated in a unique partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the regional genebank Nordic Genetic Resources Centre (NordGen), and the Crop Trust, an independent international organization. It was created under a United Nations treaty governing more than 1,700 seed banks worldwide.
Doomsday Vault Offers Hope Amidst Conflict
When the Global Seed Vault opened in 2008, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) was among the first gene banks to deposit duplicates of its seeds, sending 80 percent of what was in their gene bank in Aleppo. The ICARDA genebank had the largest collection of crop diversity from the Fertile Crescent, including barley, durum wheat, faba bean, chickpea, and lentil.
In 2011, war broke out in Syria. To save the historic collection, ICARDA shipped 14,363 accessions to the Global Seed Vault between 2012 and 2014. In September 2015, the civil war damaged the Aleppo genebank. The first and only withdrawal from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was then made by ICARDA. The request to withdraw the backup seeds was made to restart their collection away from the ongoing conflict in Aleppo. Each year since 2016, more than 30,000 samples have been regenerated for use by researchers and breeders. After years of hard work in both Lebanon and Morocco, ICARDA is now on its way to reconstructing its entire collection and continues to supply seeds to requestors.
In 2015, seedboxes from the Global Seed Vault start the journey to ICARDA. Photo Source: NordGenRepository of the Future’s Food, Shelter, and Hope
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an international endeavor that serves as a global insurance policy while safeguarding the world's crop diversity. It symbolizes humanity's commitment to safeguarding the planet's future and a reminder of the world's collective responsibility to protect biodiversity and ensure food security. As the world faces increasing environmental pressures, the Seed Vault offers a glimmer of hope, a testament to humanity's resilience and ingenuity.
Nestled amidst the snow, ice, polar bears, and reindeer, this remarkable seed storage facility transcends political or diplomatic boundaries, embodying the world’s collective commitment to preserving the future of the planet’s food sources for generations to come.
For Further Reading:
| Newer Post | Archive | Older Post |
Science Speaks is ISAAA Inc.'s official blog. Weekly blog articles, authored by ISAAA writers, partners, and invited contributors, aim to help share, disseminate, and promote scientific knowledge and its vital role in achieving global agricultural sustainability and development. Your support to Science Speaks will help us achieve this goal. You can help us by donating as little as $10.