The Global Seed Vault, a gene bank built more than 100 metres into a frozen sandstone mountain on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, was opened in 2008 to hold an insurance policy for humans’ survival — safeguarding against wars or natural disasters wiping out global food crops.
The latest specimens sent to the bank included more than 15,000 reconstituted samples from an international research centre that focuses on improving agriculture in dry zones, and consisted of seed samples for some of the world’s most vital food sources like potato, sorghum, rice, barley, chickpea, lentil and wheat.
The centre was the first to retrieve seeds from the vault in 2015 before returning new ones after multiplying and reconstituting them.
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