It seems easy to go and buy a packet of seeds, plant them, and reap the rewards. But what if they run out? Plants are a crucial part of our environment, but in many ways, they're frustratingly delicate.

Across the world, there are seed banks holding collections of seeds preserved pretty much forever. While there may be a role for seed vaults in the event of a global catastrophe, their value is considered to lie much more in providing back-up to individual collections in the event that the original samples are lost due to natural disasters, human conflict, changing policies, mismanagement, or any other circumstances, and now and again they are tested for viability. The objective is clear: to ensure the preservation of as many plants as possible for posterity.


The biggest Seed Vault

Way up north, 1300 kilometres beyond the Arctic Circle, is the world's largest secure seed storage facility, called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, opened by the Norwegian Government in February 2008. From all across the globe, crates of seeds are sent here for safe and secure long-term storage in cold, dry rock vaults. This location is in many ways a perfect location for the world’s seed backup. Norway is a quiet and safe corner at the top of the world, and a long distance from the seed vaults housing the original collections, which are mostly located in Southern regions. Even though Svalbard might ultimately be affected by global warming, it is still expected to remain one of the world’s coldest places. The seeds are placed in chambers inside the frozen mountain, and additional cooling equipment keeps the temperature at a constant -18C. The permafrost in the mountains is certain to keep the seeds cold for a long time, perhaps even without artificial cooling.

The Seed Vault safeguards duplicates of over 1.3m seed samples from almost every country in the world, with room for millions more – securely backing up the foundation of our future food supply.


Where are other seed banks?

There are over 1,700 seed banks across the world, each specialising in a different species of plant and food crop preservation - the one in the UK is called The Millennium Seed Bank (MSB), and is hidden underground in rural Sussex containing over 2.4 billion seeds, representing over 39,000 different species, together with the world's largest collection of seeds from wild plants. A world-class automated state-of-the-art research facility, the MSB is flood, bomb and radiation-proof, with deep freeze chambers that store seeds at -20°C. Fully kitted laboratories and seed preparation facilities are also on-site for botanists and geneticists to germinate and study seeds.

Credits: envato elements;

Rice and other staples

The Philippines houses the world's largest rice gene bank, which will help farmers develop rice crops that can survive drought and flooding. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) gene bank has secured permanent funding from the Crop Trust (an international organisation for conserving crop diversity and making it available for use globally for the benefit of everyone) and is part of international efforts to store seeds to protect food supplies in a warming world. Rice accounts for over 20% of global calorie intake, so its preservation is important. Rice is relatively easy to store, and should survive preservation for hundreds of years at low temperatures.

Across the world, other establishments are preserving seeds - including the Berry Botanic Garden (Portland, Oregon) who preserve seeds from endangered plants of the Pacific Northwest; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Coli, Colombia): who have an interest in cassava, forages and beans; the International Potato Center (Lima, Peru), who look after potatoes, and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (Ibadan, Nigeria) concerned with groundnut, cowpea, soybean and yams, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

All these organisations are protecting the foundation of our future food supply. Genebanks are working tirelessly to protect key crops that are increasingly vulnerable, whether it be from natural disasters, conflicts, or other challenges, which sadly, are mostly man-made.

Author

Marilyn writes regularly for The Portugal News, and has lived in the Algarve for some years. A dog-lover, she has lived in Ireland, UK, Bermuda and the Isle of Man. 

Marilyn Sheridan