Tag: Global Seed Vault

By Miriam Shindler/CIMMYT

CIMMYT’s Wellhausen-Anderson Gene Bank sent its fifth shipment of seed to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway last week for safeguarding.

Thirty-four boxes containing about 420 kilograms of seed left from CIMMYT’s El Batán headquarters on 7 February for the vault, which is deeply embedded in the frozen mountains of Svalbard. Isolated on the Norwegian Island of Spitsbergen, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, the Global Seed Vault is keeping the genetic diversity of the world’s crops safe for future generations by storing duplicates of seeds from gene banks across the globe.

CIMMYT sent 1,946 accessions of maize and 5,964 of wheat accessions to add to that collection. Over the past several years, CIMMYT has sent 123,057 accessions of maize and wheat, which is essential for protecting valuable genetic diversity. CIMMYT is working with the Norwegian government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, who manage the Global Seed Vault, to keep maize and wheat seed safe against a global catastrophe.

CIMMYT will continue to send backups of regenerated seed to Svalbard each year until its entire maize and wheat collection is represented in the vault, according to Denise Costich, head of the Maize Germplasm Bank. “Our goal is to have 100 percent of our collection backed up at Svalbard by 2021,” she said. “We continually compile a list of accessions that still need to be backed up; these are new introductions or new regenerations of accessions with low seed count or low germination.”

With more than 27,000 accessions of maize and 130,000 of wheat, CIMMYT’s gene bank is a treasure chest of genetic resources for two of the planet’s most important crops. Nonetheless, the Wellhausen-Anderson Gene Bank does not just help insure against seed loss – CIMMYT actively makes use of these collections, distributing seed, free of charge, to more than 700 partner organizations in almost every country across the globe.

In addition, through the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) project, CIMMYT scientists are unleashing the genetic potential of thousands of landraces and improving understanding of traits utilized in current varieties. It is providing scientists and breeders worldwide with new building blocks to develop climate-smart varieties for resource-poor farmers that will safeguard valuable natural resources and provide affordable and more nutritious food to current and future generations.

One of the wheat germplasm bank’s activities is to send duplicates of its accessions to other banks for safekeeping to avoid losing its seed collections in case of man-made or natural disasters.

CIMMYT currently has duplicates of its germplasm collection in three locations: the USDA’s National Plant Genetic Resources Preservation Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA; the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), a CGIAR center located in Syria; and the recently constructed Svalbard Global Seed Vault, in Norway.

The last seed shipment this year, containing 76,756 accessions, was sent on 08 December to Fort Collins. In February, 20,769 accessions from the wheat collection were sent to Svalbard, and there are currently 196 boxes containing 76,311 accessions ready to be shipped to ICARDA in January 2010.

There’s no doubt 2009 was a very busy year for the people who work in the wheat germplasm bank; besides their daily operations, they also helped prepare the duplicate shipments. The supervisors in this area recognize the efforts made by each of its team members.

They are also grateful to staff in the seed distribution unit of International Nurseries and the Seed Health Laboratory for their help with the documentation and logistics of the shipments.

Nearly a year after the icy Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened its doors for seed storage, CIMMYT scientists have selected and prepared their second Svalbard-bound shipment of wheat and maize seeds, set to go in early February.

The Svalbard Vault, located on an island 620 miles from the North Pole, was built by the Norwegian government with support from the Global Crop Diversity Trust as a secure storage facility for seed banks to hold duplicate copies of their collections. The vault is capable of holding 4.5 million seed samples, which on average contain 500 seeds each. The idea is that if a disaster occurs—be it natural, financial, or governmental—seed collections stored in Svalbard’s vault will remain unaffected and available to replace any losses.

Last year, CIMMYT sent 10,000 seed collections of maize and 47,000 of wheat—representing around a third of the center’s entire collection of crop genetic resources. The center’s second deposit will consist of nearly 22,000 wheat seed samples and 2,000 of maize. According to Svalbard Vault’s website, there are currently approximately 6.5 million seed samples stored in seed banks worldwide; an estimated 1-2 million of these are distinct. Unlike banks, the Svalbard Vault holds collections from multiple facilities—all of which retain ownership of their deposits—and will be accessed only if the original samples are disturbed.

CIMMYT personages were present for the official opening ceremonies of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, held at the facility in Norway on 26 February. The vault is designed to store duplicates of crop seeds from genetic resource collections from around the globe. CIMMYT contributed nearly 50,000 unique maize and wheat seed collections. CIMMYT DG Designate, Tom Lumpkin, passes the polar bear security post, on arrival at the Svalbard airport. Tom Payne, head of wheat genetic resources and prebreeding, personally ensures that the center’s seed gets a good spot.

On 22 January 2008, CIMMYT sent more than 160 boxes of seed for long-term deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway. The shipment comprised 10,000 maize accessions and 48,000 of wheat, and weighed around 3 tons in all. It was part of 200,000 seed collections of crop varieties sent this month for storage in the vault from CGIAR germplasm banks worldwide. The vault was built by the Norwegian government as a service to the global community, and a Rome-based international NGO, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will fund its operation. The aim is to ensure that the collections remain available for bolstering food security, should a man-made or natural disaster ever threaten agricultural systems or germplasm bank collections.

CIMMYT’s shipment was drawn from regenerations performed over the past two years, and represents roughly a third of the center’s entire collection of crop genetic resources. The CGIAR shipments, were brought to the attention of the global media through timely public-relations efforts of the CG Secretariat communications team, with support from Burness Associates. Reports have appeared to date on 8 wire services, 5 TV and radio stations, 10 newspapers, and 6 web-based outlets. Coverage in Mexico included articles in the major dailies El Universal and La Jornada, as well as a spot in the Canal 11 evening news, all reflecting favorably on CIMMYT.

Congratulations to Tom Payne, Suketoshi Taba, Bibiana Espinosa, Víctor Chávez, and all staff in the germplasm bank and seed areas, who coordinated and prepared the shipment and interacted with reporters. Thanks as well to Rodomiro Ortiz, who served as CIMMYT spokesperson to the media for this initiative.

CIMMYT recently sent three tons of maize and wheat seed to a “doomsday vault” near the North Pole to keep it—and the valuable genetic diversity it embodies—safe for future generations.

On 22 January 2008, CIMMYT sent more than 160 boxes of seed for long-term deposit in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway. The shipment comprised 10,000 seed collections of maize and 47,000 of wheat, held in trust by CIMMYT, and weighed around 3 tons in all. “This represents roughly a third of the center’s entire collection of crop genetic resources,” says Tom Payne, head of wheat genetic resources at CIMMYT. The shipment was part of more than 230,000 seed samples of crop varieties sent this month for storage in the vault, from germplasm banks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), NGOs, and national program collections.

Sheltering frail seed

As any farmer knows, seed is the basis of the world’s food supply. For plant breeders, seed also holds the genetic diversity needed to defend crops against adverse conditions, like drought and heat, or against damaging pests and diseases. But, whereas genetic diversity strengthens crops against threats, the seed that bears it is relatively vulnerable. In 1998, for example, Hurricane Mitch’s floodwaters destroyed the maize seed of Honduran farmers and of a national institution in charge of seed. In another case, during Latin America’s “lost decade” economic crisis of the 1980s, many national seed banks lacked funds to maintain adequately unique collections of native maize landraces no longer grown in farmers’ fields.

“In both instances, we helped replenish or regenerate the lost or endangered seed collections, but these and other cases illustrate the natural fragility of seed and the need for multiple safeguards,” says Suketoshi Taba, head of maize genetic resources at CIMMYT. The center’s own seed collections are held in constant low-temperature and low-humidity conditions in a concrete bunker at CIMMYT’s El Batán, Mexico, facilities. They are secured against earthquakes, power outages, insect or rodent damage, and other threats.

Food and diversity for future generations

The Svalbard vault, which will open officially on 27 February 2008, provides another level of security. It was built by the Norwegian government as a service to the global community, and a Rome-based international NGO, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, will fund its operation. Its aim is to ensure that seed collections remain safe against cataclysmic events, such as a nuclear war, natural disasters, accidents, mismanagement, or short-sighted budget cuts. Carved into rock and permafrost on an island where polar bears roam, the vault can conserve seed for hundreds and, in the case of some crop species, thousands of years.

CIMMYT’s own germplasm bank conserves more than 140,000 collections of wheat and its relatives from over 100 countries—the largest unified collection in the world for a single crop. For maize, the center conserves more than 25,000 unique seed collections, including the world’s largest store of maize landraces (traditional farmer varieties), along with samples of the wild relatives teosinte and Tripsacum spp. and of improved varieties. The maize collections represent nearly 90% of maize diversity in the Americas, the hemisphere of origin for the crop. “Most of the seed collections are held ‘in trust’—that is, under long-term storage for the benefit of humanity and free from any intellectual property restrictions,” according to Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT Director General. CIMMYT also observes the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, signed in 2004.

Occasionally a source to replenish partners’ collections in cases of catastrophe, CIMMYT germplasm bank collections are most often used for the center’s own research and the work of others—each year CIMMYT typically ships more than 5,000 seed samples, in response to requests from hundreds of researchers in dozens of countries worldwide. The collections also furnish useful genes for resistance to diseases and pests of both crops, as well as tolerance to constraints such as drought or poor soils.

“The maize seed we sent to Svalbard included collections backed up at CIMMYT over the last 15 years, as part of a cooperative program to regenerate endangered seed from Latin American germplasm banks,” says Taba. The wheat shipment to the vault comprised samples from collections regenerated over the past two years, according to Payne. “We’ll continue sending back-ups of regenerated collections to Svalbard each year, until the entire CIMMYT maize and wheat stores are represented in the vault holdings,” says Payne.

Tom Payne, head of the CIMMYT wheat collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Genetic Resources Center will be heard on the stations of National Public Radio in the United States later this month. He was interviewed this week for a story about the launching of a new genebank project in Norway. The interview was conducted over the telephone by NPR journalist Dan Charles from a studio in Washington DC. NPR sent their Mexico City journalist, Karina Pais to record Tom’s answers to the questions.

Norway announced that it will dig a large cave deep inside a frozen mountain on the arctic island of Svalbard with the capacity to hold copies of all the world’s crop seed varieties. Norway says the arctic cold will provide a failsafe backup for the world’s major genebanks, like the one at CIMMYT, which depend on electricity to keep their refrigeration equipment running. The Norwegian project is expected to be ready in 2007.