By Wallace Mawire
Amid reports of food insecurity driven by conflict and climate change across Africa, several African countries have indicated that they will be depositing various seed varieties of sorghum, rice, maize and others in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, according to Lynda Mwakisha on behalf of the Crop Trust.
Often called the “Doomsday Vault,” the genebank deep in the Arctic safeguards the genetic diversity of the world’s food supply.
Mwakisha said that Sudan, despite a raging war has also assembled and shipped samples of pearl millet and sorghum this month, though they won’t be deposited in Svalbard until early next year.She also said that Chad is one other African country which will be depositing seed into the vault.
She said that the group of over 20 depositing countries marks the second-largest multi-depositor event since the Vault’s inception in 2008.
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Along with the above mentioned seed varieties, finger millet, chickpea and beans coming from the Africa continent will be deposited in the vault,”Mwakisha said.
According to information released by Mwakisha, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault recently received a deposit of more than 30 000 new seed samples from 23 depositors across 21 countries, including seven international genebanks.
She said that this marks the largest number of depositors since the Seed Vault received samples from a record-breaking 35 genebanks in 2020, underscoring the urgent global effort to conserve crop diversity in the face of escalating climate change, conflict and other crises.
She added that the deposit includes first-time contributions from genebanks in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Chad, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea and Suriname.
The Crop Trust is providing financial and technical support to these and other countries to help them take the necessary steps to preserve their collections in the long-term.
The support is made possible by generous financial contributions from Norway as part of the ‘Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods, and Development’ (BOLD) project.
“Climate change and conflict threaten infrastructure and impact food security for over 700 million people in more than 75 countries worldwide. Genebanks are ramping up efforts to back-up seed collections, and we are proud to support them by providing a safe haven in Svalbard,” said Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the Crop Trust.
Recent climate data underscores the urgency of the work.
It is reported that 2023 was hottest year since global records began, by a wide margin.
Of the 30 deadliest weather events ever recorded in Africa, five occurred in 2022 and 2023, and Asia remains the worlds most disaster-prone region.
Meanwhile, yields of the main cereals in sub-Saharan Africa are less than half of the world average.Crop Trust says that this highlights the pressing need to conserve, explore and use the diversity of both forgotten crops and of the better-known staples found in the world’s genebanks.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault operates through a partnership between the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Crop Trust and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).
The Seed Vault serves as a vital backup for genebanks all over the world.
Chad, a newcomer to the Seed Vault, the Institut Tchadien de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement is depositing 1 145 samples of sesame, rice, maize and sorghum.
Crop Trust says that this contribution is particularly significant, as these crop varieties are adapted to Chad’s harsh climate and therefore crucial for developing crops that can withstand increasing temperatures and erratic rainfall.
Tanzania, the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) genebank in Tanzania is depositing over 100 accessions of vegetables and other crops, filling a critical gap. Less than 10% of accessions conserved in genebanks are of the more than 1,100 vegetable species around the world.
Crop Trust said that there is an urgent need to rescue and conserve vegetable diversity to address malnutrition. They add that growing more vegetables, especially in Africa, also means more jobs and resilient farms.
“The WorldVeg genebank in Tanzania has a direct line to farmers, who — through seed kits containing a variety of vegetable seeds, including leafy amaranth and okra — grow and sell these crops to supermarkets,” said Maarten van Zonneveld, Head of Genetic Resources at WorldVeg.
Sudan’s Agricultural Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Research Centre (APGRC), prepared hundreds of samples of sorghum and pearl millet seeds with support from BOLD.
Genebank staff assembled the seeds despite war raging in the country and lack of access to the main national genebank in Wad Medani. Security trucks transported the seeds to Port Sudan for outward shipment. NordGen will sort, catalogue and dry every seed sample before the final transfer to Svalbard in February 2025.
Seeds also come from another area of intense conflict. The Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) in Palestine has delivered seeds of 21 species of vegetables, legumes and herbs.
Crop Trust said that many of the seeds in this deposit represent “opportunity crops,” crops that can thrive in challenging conditions and have untapped potential to improve food security, nutrition, and resilience to climate change.
They say that due to changing trends in food and agriculture, many of these crops have been left out of peoples’ meals and policymakers’ agendas. They include crops like okra, millets and pigeon pea.
The Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food is the legal and administrative body of the Seed Vault and has the overall responsibility for its management, security and funding.
The Ministry has assigned Statsbygg, the key adviser on construction and property to the Norwegian Government to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Seed Vault..
NordGen is the Nordic countries’ genebank and knowledge center for genetic resources.
As the operational manager of the Seed Vault, NordGen is responsible for handling the seeds inside the Seed Vault; communicating with genebanks; and maintaining a publicly accessible online database with information on the seed samples stored in the Seed Vault..
The Crop Trust is an international organization working to conserve crop diversity and thus protect global food and nutrition security.
At the core of Crop Trust is an endowment fund dedicated to providing guaranteed long-term financial support to key genebanks worldwide.
The Crop Trust supports the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and coordinates large-scale projects worldwide to secure crop diversity and make it available for use, globally forever and for the benefit of everyone. The Crop Trust is recognized as an essential element of the funding strategy of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture..
BOLD is a 10-year project to strengthen food and nutrition security worldwide by supporting the conservation and use of crop diversity.
The project works with national genebanks, pre-breeding and seed system partners globally. Funded by the Government of Norway, BOLD is led by the Crop Trust in partnership with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and the International Plant Treaty.
