The seeds are stored in warehouses that are resistant to even nuclear explosions. The project is carried out with support of the Global Organization for Crop Diversity (GDTC) and the Norwegian government. The ‘Global Seed Vault’, opened in Longyeatbyen, Norway in 2008, is the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. This program will help Pakistani farmers improve irrigation and rehabilitation techniques for their crops and increase water efficiency.The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is a long-term storage facility that established to save plant species from extinction and replant in the event of a possible global disaster, is attracting more and more attention. With help from these seeds, more than 14,000 Pakistani farmers are actively being trained by agricultural experts at ICARDA as part of a US funded program with the USDA.
Despite this being the first withdrawal of seeds from the Doomsday Vault, it highlights the ongoing and vital research and outreach needed to nourish future generations. Increasing pressure from global climate change, population growth, water scarcity, and energy supply will exacerbate the need for better management of land and food within tropical arid regions of the world. With research into the root causes of rural poverty and enabling public investment there are often pathways out of chronic poverty. Often times, agricultural communities in dry climates are stuck in a cycle of poverty and malnourishment. Lastly, ICARDA focuses on social, economic, and policy research within low-income arid regions. These changes often require larger diversification of crops within a region and sustainable implementation through a rotational crop program. A primary goal of ICARDA is to focus agriculture on either income generating potential or livelihood potential. In addition, with knowledge of higher yielding crops or more desirable crops, income from farming can go through a step change in a matter of a few years. Often time's poor diversification of crops planted can cause stripping of nutrients in the soil and lower yields throughout time. With better water and land management, communities in arid climates will be able to produce higher crop yields while better conserving irrigation water. Exploited groundwater use often times leads to aquifers being drained much quicker than they naturally replenish. Water scarcity and land degradation are common problems in urban settings and are exacerbated in arid climates where infrastructure and educational systems are not in place. Water management is a key factor in limiting exposure in populated yet arid climates. In addition, research is being conducted on pest and disease resistant crops. The development of improved genetic stocks of barley, wheat, and legumes will allow for more drought resistant crops in arid climates. With increasing drought conditions in many parts of the world, many agriculturally important regions are loosing their genetic biodiversity. ICARDA is able to use the seeds withdrawn from the Doomsday Vault to study resistance to heat and drought stress and determine genetic markers for more resistant strains. With a new headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA has asked for 38,000 seeds to be withdrawn from the vault to resume research on arid crops.īiodiversity and Integrated Gene Management Therefore, ICARDA removed its seed back from its facility in Aleppo, Syria in 2012 and sent them to the Doomsday Vault for safekeeping. ICARDA had initially stored the seeds in 2012 within the vault among concerns that the war-torn Syria would compromise the seed collection and disrupt years of research and seed collection. On Octothe International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) received the first ever withdrawal of seeds from the Doomsday Vault. To this purpose, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, often times referred to as the Doomsday Vault, was built and commissioned on February 26th, 2008. These concerns, born out of the realization of mass extinction (both human and non) led to a worldwide seed diversity initiative to protect agricultural crops in case of calamity.
There were days, decades ago, when world leaders were concerned with the vitality of our planet's crops.
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