Heritage and Health Take Center Stage at latest Svalbard Global Seed Vault Deposit
News story | Date: 04/06/2025 | Ministry of Agriculture and Food
As genebanks around the world send seed samples to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, the focus is on how crop diversity reflects cultural heritage.
Fourteen genebanks will deposit 11,206 seed samples in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault this week, including vegetables and traditional crops that are as important to cultural identity as they are to nutrition and resilience to climate change.
The world’s largest repository of crop diversity will now house seed samples of cultural icons ranging from Korea’s perilla and adzuki bean to Dutch heritage cabbage and spinach varieties and Benin’s ancient cereal fonio and melon.
– This week, thousands of new samples of seeds from 14 countries will be sent and transported inside the frozen mountains in Svalbard, the cold and barren Arctic archipelago, which is only 1360 km south of the North Pole. It is important for the world to realize the value of these seeds to help scientists, breeders and farmers prepare our crop production for natural and man-made future challenges, State Secretary Hanne Berit Brekken in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food says.
The 67th deposit adds to the over 1.3 million accessions already in the Seed Vault. Located deep in the Arctic permafrost on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the Seed Vault is managed by the Norwegian Government, NordGen and the Crop Trust.
Some genebanks are depositing copies of their seed collections with the support of the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) project, which is funded by Norway and managed by the Crop Trust. BOLD provides grants to help partners regenerate seeds from their collections and back them up in Svalbard.
|
Seed deposits June 2025 |
Country |
Accessions |
Boxes |
Crops |
|
Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) |
Austria |
5 |
1 |
Barley, rye, soybean and poppy |
|
Laboratory of Genetics, Biotechnology and Seed Sciences (BOLD partner) |
Benin |
253 |
1 |
Pigeon pea, fonio, roselle and native melon (Melothria sphaerocarpa) |
|
Genetic Resources Research Institute, KALRO |
Kenya |
749 |
1 |
Pigeon pea, finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, mung bean and cowpea |
|
ICARDA |
Lebanon |
2,707 |
7 |
170 species, a huge diversity of legume species related to chickpea, peavines (Lathyrus), lentils, alfalfa, clovers, vetches and peas |
|
Center for Genetic Resources (CGN, WUR) |
Netherlands |
716 |
1 |
62 species, cereals, vegetables, legumes, vegetable and potato wild relatives |
|
National Plant Genetic Resources Laboratory (BOLD partner) |
Philippines |
149 |
1 |
Pepper, tomato, eggplant and lima bean |
|
Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute |
Poland |
920 |
2 |
Mostly barley, rye and tomatoes |
|
National Agricultural and Food Centre |
Slovakia |
160 |
1 |
Barley, peavine (Lathyrus), lentils, beans, peas and wheat |
|
RDA, National Agrobiodiversity Center |
South Korea |
4,000 |
8 |
59 species/subspecies of maize, barley, Vigna, perilla, sesame, adlay millet (Coix), buckwheat and others |
|
Sveaskog |
Sweden |
8 |
1 |
Tree species (birch, spruce and pine) |
|
Warwick Genetic Resources Unit |
United Kingdom |
286 |
1 |
36 species of vegetables, mostly cabbages, carrot and lettuce |
|
Seed Savers Exchange |
USA |
25 |
1 |
16 species of vegetables and herbs |
|
Can Tho University (BOLD partner, new depositor) |
Vietnam |
1,000 |
2 |
Rice |
|
SPRGC |
Zambia |
228 |
3 |
Groundnut, finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, cowpea and maize |
|
Totals |
11,206 |
31 |