Bloomberg: Arctic Vault Stashes More Seeds for Future Food
25 October 2024
As reported by Bloomberg, 23 depositors from 21 countries sent boxes of seeds that contain over 30,000 seed samples for safekeeping at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. This underlines the urgent need to preserve crop diversity amid ongoing challenges posed by climate change and geopolitical conflicts that threaten food security.
Many of the seeds deposited in October 2024 are "opportunity crops" that can thrive in challenging conditions but are often overlooked in diets, markets and by policymakers. October’s contributions included pearl millet and groundnut wild relatives from ICRISAT in India, maize and beans from Bolivia, and over 7,000 rice samples from IRRI in the Philippines, alongside local varieties from conflict-affected regions.
“It is an old piece of investment wisdom, ‘Don't put all your eggs in one basket.’ But that is exactly what we are currently doing in food,” said Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust, emphasizing the importance of diversifying the global food system. He noted that diets heavily reliant on rice, wheat, and corn, which together provide about half of the world's calories, are particularly vulnerable.
The Svalbard facility serves as a backup for genebanks worldwide and safeguards vital crop varieties essential for adapting to new climates and markets.
Categories: For The Press, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Beans, Maize, Pearl Millet, Nutritional Security, English