Åsmund Asdal: Farmers’ Son Who Opens the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to the World

Over the past decade, Åsmund Asdal has shown that even a good idea only really works well in practice if you have the right people on the ground.

In 2025, the son of Norwegian farmers will mark a personal milestone as he completes 10 years as operations and management coordinator of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest repository of crop diversity. In this unique role, he is responsible for connecting with the world’s genebanks and helping them back up their seeds to mitigate the possible effects of natural disaster, war, financial neglect and other catastrophes.

Located deep inside an ice-capped mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, the Seed Vault was established in 2008. It is managed in a partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Nordic regional genebank NordGen and the Crop Trust.

Asdal is tasked with opening the Seed Vault to the world, both figuratively and literally. Globally, he promotes its unique purpose as the ultimate insurance policy against the permanent loss of crop diversity. He also supervises the deposits from genebanks each time the storage facility physically opens, which normally happens three times a year.

“I used to say the Seed Vault made me a rock star,” Asdal said in a recent interview with the Crop Trust on the sidelines of a Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) project workshop. “But the real work is done by the genebanks. They produce the seeds. They distribute seeds to farmers, scientists and breeders. And they work hard to send the seeds to the Seed Vault for safety.”

Stellar Track Record

Asdal’s scorecard over the decade of his tenure at the Seed Vault is impressive. Since starting in his current role, the Norwegian horticulturist and ecologist has overseen the receipt of close to half a million seed samples and a doubling in the number of institutes that have deposited there. At the end of 2015, the collection at Svalbard stood at 837,858 safety duplicates from 66 institutes. Today, the facility holds over 1.3 million seed samples from 123 depositors, according to NordGen.

“It's amazing how this has evolved and how the interest has increased,” Asdal said in the Crop Trust interview. “Now, I think most genebanks in the world really want to be part of it if they can find the resources to save the seeds and reproduce them.”

Before embarking on his mission as coordinator of the Seed Vault, Asdal was involved in its creation as a member of the Norwegian delegation to the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, where plans to establish the long-term storage facility were announced in 2004. He was also in charge of the Norwegian national program for conservation and use of plant genetic resources for 15 years.

“He is a hardworking, dedicated man with a rare, genuine and inspiring interest in everyone he meets, whether they are prime ministers or painters,” says Sara Landqvist, Head of Communications at NordGen. “Åsmund has devoted his life to plant genetic resources, and his warm, professional demeanor is a cornerstone of the Seed Vault’s success.”

Farming Family

Born in 1957, Asdal grew up on a small farm in Telemark, a Norwegian county. Both his parents were farmers, while his mother also held a part-time job as a teacher.

“We produced all we needed – potatoes, vegetables, fruit and berries, game from the forest and animal products such as milk, meat and eggs. We hardly bought anything from the shops,” he said.

Asdal studied environmental ecology, botany and then agriculture at the Norwegian Agricultural University (now called the Norwegian University of Life Sciences), where he graduated in 1984. 

He first started working with plant genetic resources when he chose the topic for his thesis at university. One proposal from his academic supervisors was to map, register and evaluate wild redcurrants in Norwegian mountainous areas.

“My main interest was to walk in the mountains and look for plants,” he said. “That was when I had my first contact with the Nordic Genebank.” 

The Nordic Genebank became part of NordGen (the Nordic Genetic Resource Center) in a merger of three organizations in 2008.

In the 1990s, Asdal was head of a research station in the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research. At the end of the decade, he was approached to write a report on the possible creation of a Norwegian plant genetic resource program, which was established in 2000. Asdal oversaw the program from 2000 to 2015.

At the Seed Vault, Asdal is responsible for starting a seed experiment that began in 2020 and is expected to continue for 100 years. Seeds of 14 crops from six partner organizations will be tested for their viability every 10 years until 2120 to determine how long seeds can stay alive and when they need to be regenerated. It is thought that seeds of most species can stay viable for centuries in the Seed Vault, while some may survive for more than 1,000 years, according to state-of-the-art research in the field.

“The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is key to ensuring that the world can mitigate the effects of crises that threaten the genetic foundation of our crops,” says Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. “The work of Åsmund and his colleagues is indispensable in this global effort to prevent a crisis from turning into a disaster.”