![]() Local deposits can be accessed readily, but the Svalbard supplies are only be requested as a last resort. The seeds lie in wait to back up their collections in case of man-made or natural calamities. It also preserves the genetic data of seeds that are also stored in local banks across the globe. ![]() Since the Global Seed Vault in Norway's Svalbard archipelago opened in 2008, gene banks and organisations around the world have deposited around 860,000 samples of 4,000 different at-risk plant species from across the world. Many of these seeds, which included samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions, have traits resistant to drought, which could help breed crops to withstand climate change in dry areas from Australia to Africa. Is on the Svalbard archipelago between Norway and the North pole ICARDA moved its headquarters to Beirut from Aleppo in Syria in 2012 because of the conflict. Syria's civil war prompted the first withdrawal of seeds from the vault in September, following a request by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). To protect the seeds, the vault is rarely opened. 'The deposits are due in March and May,' she said. She said two deposits were planned for next year, but that the details of the deposits were as yet unclear. 'The seed vault is the back-up of the back-up,' said Cierra Martin, a spokeswoman for the Crop Trust, the Bonn-based organisation which manages the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The vault provides a back-up to the network of seed banks around the world, which store seeds but can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters.Įven if the power were to fail, the vault would stay frozen and sealed for at least 200 years. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on an island off Norway's northern coast, already stores 825,000 samples of seeds, which represent 13,000 years of agricultural history.
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