Frozen in time: Ghana and Germany safeguard seeds of the future in arctic “Doomsday Vault”

24 Oct 2023 --- The latest deposits have been made in the remote Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which houses a vast collection of seeds for crop diversity from all over the world. Dubbed the “Doomsday Vault,” it aims to conserve vital seed collection duplicates as a means to ensure food security in the wake of disaster and other environmental impacts.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault sits on the remote island of Spitsbergen, housing over 1.2 million seed samples, designating its humongous collection as the world’s highest at a single location.

Spitsbergen is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norway. 

Among the latest depositors is the Germany-based Bonn University Botanic Gardens.

“Some seeds we place in the Seed Vault represent high-quality varieties ideally suited to local, low-energy, low-input production in Germany. The world needs to grow varieties such as these to maintain and increase food production and quality sustainably,” says Maximilian Weigend, director of the Bonn University Botanic Gardens.

As reported by Food Ingredients First last year, the seed vault received over 20,000 seed samples from 10 international gene banks to secure the future of crops and biodiversity amid the rising climate change challenges. At the time, ancient wheat, vegetables and various legumes were some of the seed crops deposited. 

Secured in perpetuity
The Seed Vault has been accepting contributions from gene banks worldwide for the last 15 years in an attempt to conserve copies of their seed diversity. Rapidly changing climate and other environmental challenges make this diversity crucial in enabling agri-food systems’ adaptability to future threats.

Following the recent addition, Seed Vault now holds crops from 74 countries. 

Germany has deposited climate-resilient frost-hardy varieties of tomato seeds, lettuce and savoy cabbage.After a secure delivery to the Seed Vault, the seeds will be stored in the subterranean seed chambers in arctic temperatures of −18°C, amid the thousands of other varieties already in the vault. 

In addition to the deposit from Germany, Ghana has become the 100th depositor recently with a supply from the Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-PGRRI).

The deposit includes maize, rice, eggplant and cowpea varieties — all vital crops for the country’s food security, health and culinary culture.

CSIR-PGRRI is a partner of the Crop Trust’s five-year Seeds for Resilience project, funded by the Federal Government of Germany (BMZ), through the German Development Bank (KfW), along with the national gene banks of Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia were some other regions that sent back-ups of their collections this month. 

“This, our very first safety back-up, provides a sense of relief that our collections of crop diversity are on the path to being secured in perpetuity for the benefit of all humanity,” says Daniel Kotey, senior research scientist at CSIR-PGRRI in Ghana. 

Climate-resilient crops 
Uruguay, Thailand, New Zealand and the Czech Republic have also contributed to the seed deposits at the remote permafrost seed vault.

Notably, the contributions from Bonn University Botanic Gardens — the other first-time depositor — are climate-resilient crops that include frost-hardy varieties of lettuce and savoy cabbage and tomato.

India’s International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) gene bank — one of the international gene banks that conserve and make available crop diversity under the FAO’s International Plant Treaty — has sent 1,300 samples of chickpea diversity from 47 different countries around the world. 

“Some of these seeds may hold characteristics that could aid farmers and researchers in developing improved crop varieties, ones that are better suited to the changing climate, for example, being able to withstand heat, drought, and new pests and diseases,” says Kuldeep Singh, the gene bank manager at the ICRISAT.

“Caring for a plant genetic resource collection is a labor of love: it’s a responsibility that assures humanity preserves the rich heritage of crop diversity for generations to come. And safety duplication is an important part of that responsibility.” 

In the future, some seeds could help farmers develop improved crop varieties in sync with the changing climate. As the climate crisis wreaks increasing havoc on food systems, natural disasters and conflict compound the damage, protecting the world’s crops has never been more urgent.

For instance, according to a study in Nature Communications, hops — the crops behind beer’s characteristic bitterness — are declining in yield and quality due to hot and dry summers, making them less flavorful. 

Drought, heavy rainfall and flooding have also impacted global food supplies in recent months, with widespread concern for California’s almond farms, for example. 

Last week, the FAO revealed that an estimated US$3.8 trillion worth of crops and livestock production had been lost over the previous 30 years due to natural global disasters, corresponding to an average loss of US$123 billion annually or 5% of global gross domestic product.

A step toward food security
Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust, flags that these latest deposits mark a significant move in safeguarding global food supplies.

Meanwhile, Lise Lykke Steffensen, chief executive of NordGen, adds: “We at NordGen feel honored that the world’s genebanks have shown such trust and support for our work with the Seed Vault. The fact that 100 different institutions have now decided to back up their valuable collections in Svalbard is great news for global food security, and we look forward to welcoming many more depositors in the future.” 

By Insha Naureen and Elizabeth Green