![]() The world used to cultivate over 6,000 different plants but UN experts say we now get about 40% of our calories from three main crops, maize, wheat and rice, making food supplies vulnerable if climate change causes harvests to fail. The Seed Vault is a long-term seed storage. South Korea and Mexico were also among the nations making deposits on Wednesday. The Cherokee Nation is the first US tribe to be invited to deposit its traditional heirloom food crop seeds in the Global Seed Vault. Beer and whiskey lovers, raise a glass to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which has just taken in 20,000 new crop varieties. Deep inside a mountain on a remote Arctic island in a Norwegian. “The participation of countries in the Seed Vault’s mission is vital to underwriting the life insurance that genetic diversity represents,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust which manages the facility alongside Norway. About 20,000 new crop varieties have been sent to the Arctic facility. ‘Doomsday’ vault defences to be boosted - Agence France-Presse in Stockholm Norway said it would boost protection of a seed storage vault designed to protect the world’s crops from disaster, after soaring temperatures caused water to leak into its entrance. Iraq’s first deposit will consist of 418 seed samples of wild and cultivated species, including wheat and rice, while Uruguay’s initial delivery comes in the form of 1,892 seeds of wheat and barley. More than 45,000 seed samples from 13 gene banks from Asia, Australia, Europe and Latin America will be added on Wednesday, lifting the total number of deposits to more than 1.2 million for the first time, the Norwegian ministry said in a statement. Launched in 2008, the vault acts as a last resort for national and regional gene banks and played an essential role between 20 in rebuilding seed collections damaged during the war in Syria. Welcome to the Svalbard seed vault, also known as the doomsday vault, home to millions of seeds from around the planet. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, set in permafrost caves on Spitsbergen island halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, is only opened three times a year to limit its seeds’ exposure to the outside world. Watch this next: The Fungarium and Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at Kew.A vault built on an Arctic island to preserve the world’s crop seeds from war, disease and other catastrophes will receive new deposits on Wednesday, including for the first time from Iraq and Uruguay, Norway’s ministry of agriculture and food said. According to The Economist, “the Svalbard vault is a backup for the world’s 1,750 seed banks, storehouses of agricultural biodiversity.”įrom Crop Trust, take a 360 degree tour of the vault. On the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects around 865000 seed samples from all over the world. ![]() The national seed bank of the Philippines was damaged by flooding and later destroyed by a fire the seed banks of Afghanistan and Iraq have been lost completely. War and civil strife have a history of destroying some genebanks. While the popular press has emphasized its possible utility in the event of a major regional or global catastrophe, it will be more frequently accessed when genebanks lose samples due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts, and natural disasters. Designed to help agriculture recover in the event of armageddon, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is humanitys backup plan. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault’s mission is to provide a safety net against accidental loss of diversity in traditional genebanks. ![]() “There are nearly 160,000 samples of wheat, and approaching 150,000 samples of rice.” The Guardian also explains that “the site was built to be disaster-proof: 130 metres up the mountain in case of sea-level rise, earthquake resistant, and with a natural insulation of permafrost to ensure the contents were kept frozen for decades to come.”ĪJ+ gives us a look inside The Doomsday Vault, but its mission is more practical and less sci-fi than its nickname. The Global Seed Vault, designed to preserve the world’s food supply in the case of a ‘doomsday’ scenario, has been breached by meltwater from Arctic permafrost, officials say. On the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects around 865,000 seed samples from all over the world.
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