Long travelled seeds in place in the Seed Vault
The second regular Seed Vault opening this year was accomplished during the first week of June. Two gene banks deposited seeds at this occasion; the US based Seed Savers Exchange and the Margot Forde Germplasm Centre in New Zealand. In addition the last portion of orchid seeds from the Myanmar Orchid project were placed in the Seed Vault.
Seeds from unique forage collection deposited in the Seed Vault
Seeds from the world’s arguably most diverse and unique forage collection were deposited in Svalbard Global Seed Vault today. In a country with about 30 million sheep to its 3 million inhabitants, forages are an important part of the economy. The Margot Forde Forage Germplasm Centre plans to continue to back up its collection at Svalbard- as they consider it an obvious choice for the gene bank material’s second backup.
SPGRC in Zambia Urge all the World’s Gene banks to Use the Seed Vault
This week, NordGen carried new seeds into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The deposit comes from the regional gene bank SPGRC, which sent eight boxes all the way from Zambia. The gene bank and its employees were close to the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai but were fortunately not directly affected. However, the gene bank still has many other challenges to handle.
Close to 90% of the ICRISAT collection duplicated
ICRISAT is among the gene banks that have deposited the largest numbers of seed samples in the Seed Vault. “At the moment almost 90% of our seed collection is duplicated in the Seed Vault, and we will continue to ship seeds to Svalbard until copies of the entire collection is deposited there”, says Dr. Vania Azevedo, Head of ICRISAT Genebank.
India eager to deposit more seeds in Svalbard
India has one of the largest plant germplasm collections in the world, hosted in the National Gene Bank at ICAR National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi. The NBPGR has only just started to deposit security samples in the Seed Vault, but is eager to speed up this process significantly, hopefully with new seed shipments to Svalbard later this year.
National Plant Genetic Resources Center under establishment in Thailand
Four gene bank collections in Thailand have deposited seeds in the Seed Vault. Thailands Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has given its Department of Agriculture the task to lead a new National Plant Genetic Resources Center, which will coordinate the activities of 17 institutes and other bodies in the field.
The largest diversity of crop species in the Seed Vault
The German Genebank Department at the IPK in Gatersleben organizes regularly the so called Vavilov seminars for employees and guests. The gene bank deposits regularly safety duplicates of their seed collection in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, and a presentation about the Seed Vault and its cooperation with IPK was on the agenda for the Vavilov seminar this week.
Seed Vault openings 2019
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will be opened for regular seed deposits three times during 2019; in March, in June and in October. Gene banks are invited to plan for shipping seeds at these three Seed Vault opening occasions.
Seeds from four continents
Seeds from six gene banks were deposited in the Seed Vault this week; the International CGIAR centres in Peru (CIP) and Ethiopia (ILRI) and from two ICARDA stations, in Lebanon and Morocco respectively. National gene banks in Czeck Republic and United Kingdom sent seeds and also the regional gene bank for countries in Southern Africa, SPGRC.
Vegetable seeds from UK deposited
Next week the first seeds from the UK Vegetable Genebank at the University of Warwick will be deposited in Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It is the second gene bank in the United Kingdom to secure seeds in the Seed Vault.