100,000th seed sample sent to Svalbard

January 31, 2011 at 12:11 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The genebank at Tel Hadya: ICARDA seeds begin their journey to the Arctic

ICARDA has just dispatched its fourth shipment of germplasm to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. With this shipment, the seed vault will contain more than 102,000 accessions from ICARDA’s genebank – the largest contribution from the CGIAR. The latest shipment contained 7760 seed samples of cereal and food legume crops, sealed in aluminum foil and packed in special weather-proof cartons. The samples will be stored in an underground vault on the remote Arctic island of Spitzbergen, managed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust with support from the Norwegian government and other partners. The Global Seed Vault will eventually hold a large proportion of the world’s plant genetic diversity, serving as insurance against loss of this vital resource.

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