The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened its doors for the second time this year, adding over 15,000 new seed samples. Its collection has now surpassed 1.4 million seed samples, each stored as a safeguard for the future of food and humanity.
Feature photo credit: Nordgen
Since the opening of the Seed Vault in 2008, this is the 70th deposit and brings the total number of seed samples in the Seed Vault to 1,401,285.
In total, 15,387 seed samples from 11 genebanks were deposited for long-term safeguarding in the world’s largest secure seed-storage facility.
Photo: NordGen
The June deposit featured almost twice as many samples as the February deposit and showcases a global assortment of crop diversity. Thousands of seed samples from genebanks across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia are now secured on the icy shelves of the Global Seed Vault.
Burkina Faso and Niger became first-time depositors with support from the the Benefit Sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty).
| Genebank | Country | Seed Samples | Boxes | Crops |
| APGRC | Sudan | 982 | 1 | 19 species, including 444 pearl millet, 238 sorghum + other tropical, grain, legume and vegetable species |
| CGN | Netherlands | 660 | 1 | 43 species, 160 peppers, 64 beans + diff. vegetables, legumes, cereals |
| CONAGREP (new, BSF-supported) | Burkina Faso | 370 | 1 | 10 species: okra, maize, groundnut, Hibiscus, pearl millet, rice , sesame, sorghum, bambara groundnut, cow pea, |
| Embrapa | Brazil | 24 | 1 | 5 species; cashew tree, groundnut, castor bean, lima bean and sesame |
| ICARDA | Morocco | 1172 | 4 | 30 species of chickpeas (302), lens (268) and cereals |
| IHAR | Poland | 1000 | 2 | 15 species of rye wheat (596) , oats, buckwheat, common millet, faba bean, maize, tomatoes, cucumber, melon and sorghum |
| INRAN (new, BSF-supported) | Niger | 204 | 1 | 4 species: groundnut, pearl millet, sorghum and cow pea |
| John Innes Centre | United Kingdom | 4602 | 10 | Wheat, barley, oats and rye wheat (in total 17 different species) |
| RDA, National Agrobiodiversity Center | South-Korea | 6000 | 7 | 50 species, cereals, vegetables and legumes |
| Seed Savers Exchange | USA | 53 | 1 | 18 species, vegetables, legumes and cereals |
| Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute | Taiwan | 320 | 3 | Cucumber, soybean, tomatoes, aubergine and winged bean |
| TOTALS | 15,387 | 32 | ||
Photo: NordGen
Meet the Partners
The Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food is the legal and administrative body of the Seed Vault and has the overall responsibility for its management, security and funding. The Ministry has assigned Statsbygg, the key adviser on construction and property to the Norwegian Government to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Seed Vault. For more information see www.seedvault.no and www.regjeringen.no.
NordGen is the Nordic countries’ genebank and knowledge centre for genetic resources. As the operational manager of the Seed Vault, NordGen is responsible for handling the seeds inside the Seed Vault; communicating with genebanks, and maintaining a publicly accessible online database with information on the seed samples stored in the Seed Vault (seedvault.nordgen.org). Read more about NordGen at www.nordgen.org.
The Crop Trust is an international organization working to conserve crop diversity and thus protect global food and nutrition security. At the core of Crop Trust is an endowment fund dedicated to providing guaranteed long-term financial support to key genebanks worldwide. The Crop Trust supports the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and coordinates large-scale projects worldwide to secure crop diversity and make it available for use, globally forever and for the benefit of everyone. The Crop Trust is recognized as an essential element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Learn more at www.croptrust.org.