OSLO, Norway (Reuters) — Two new consignments of crop seeds will be deposited next year in the “doomsday vault” built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global supplies.
The vault, which opened on the Svalbard archipelago between Norway and the North Pole in 2008, is designed to protect crop seeds against the worst cataclysms of nuclear war or disease.
It already has more than 860,000 samples from almost all nations. Even if the power were to fail, the vault would stay frozen and sealed for at least 200 years.
Read Also
Manitoba Parkland research station grapples with dry year
Drought conditions in northwestern Manitoba have forced researchers at the Parkland Crop Diversification Foundation to terminate some projects and reseed others.
“The seed vault is the back-up of the back-up,” said Cierra Martin, a spokesperson for the Crop Trust, which manages the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
She said two deposits were planned for next year, but that the details of the deposits were as yet unclear.
“The deposits are due in March and May,” she said.
The vault is rarely opened as a way to protect the seeds.
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, which moved its headquarters to Beirut from Aleppo, Syria, in 2012 because of the conflict.
“ICARDA had to move collections in Syria to Morocco and Lebanon and the seed vault helped them reestablish their collections,” said Martin.
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.
