The Svalbard Global Seed Vault: the ultimate backup for crop diversity

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an outstanding example of countries coming together to address an issue that affects us all. It provides a vital backup for genebanks which conserve, study and share crop diversity.

In simple terms, the vault – run by the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre and the Crop Trust – is a tunnel carved into a frozen mountain where boxes of seeds are stored, ready to be thawed and replanted should the need arise.

But the Seed Vault is much more than a cold storage facility.

Living libraries of the world’s crops

Every seed in every box has a story to tell. Stories of farmers and scientists working with nature over thousands of years to select and develop the plant varieties that feed us. Stories about local dishes, cultural practices and specific environments.

Together, the seeds in the vault represent the history of agriculture and, to an extent, of human civilization itself.

Many of the seeds conserved in Svalbard were handed down from generation to generation within communities. However, the homogenization of agriculture and other factors have curtailed this practice in many parts of the world. Countless plant varieties – for example, over 85% of named apple varieties in the United States – are almost certainly now extinct.

Genebanks, including the eleven operated by CGIAR Centers, help to halt and reverse the disappearance of crop diversity. They conserve seeds – and other planting material like roots, tubers and plantlets – in optimized conditions so that farmers, breeders and researchers can access them.

The aim is not to replace the traditional practice of passing plant diversity on to descendants but to complement it: filling in the gaps, providing safety backups, and, frequently, helping communities to recover traditional varieties they have lost.

The people behind the boxes

For the seeds to arrive in Svalbard – sealed in vacuum packs and neatly arranged in boxes – thousands of people need to play their part.

In addition to the generations of farmers and breeders who developed the varieties, there are the scientists who had the foresight to collect samples before they disappeared from the fields.

Then there are the technicians who classify the seeds and test their viability; the staff who keep the genebanks clean and safe; the phytosanitary health experts who ensure the seeds are free of pests and diseases; the geneticists who study the seeds and identify promising traits; and the legal experts who ensure that the resources are conserved and shared in line with the International Plant Treaty and other regulations on access and benefit sharing.

Every seed packet is a testament to their vision, commitment and ingenuity.

Seeds can only be stored at Svalbard on the condition that they are made available for breeding, research and education on terms similar to the Plant Treaty and its Standard Material Transfer Agreement.

So, for every seed in the vault, there are identical samples in genebanks that users can access to grow healthy, resilient crops.

Duplicates of the seeds must also be conserved in another genebank before a sample is sent to the Arctic. This means there are several levels of insurance for these precious resources.

CGIAR’s contribution to the Seed Vault

CGIAR has been closely involved with the Global Seed Vault from the start. Scientists from the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (now part of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) encouraged the Government of Norway to set up a global facility in Svalbard in 2004.

CGIAR Centers were among the first depositors and still provide over 50% of the samples held in the Vault. Several CGIAR scientists – currently Marie-Noelle Ndjiondjop, Manager of AfricaRice’s genebank – have served on the International Advisory Panel which provides advice and recommendations on the vault’s operations.

The benefits of the Global Seed Vault to CGIAR and its mission are not hypothetical; it is not just something we might need someday.

ICARDA’s genebank, then located in Tel Hadiya, Syria, was among the first depositors in 2008. As conflict broke out around them in 2011, staff at the genebank mounted a huge operation to prepare, pack and ship the remaining samples to Svalbard.

The genebank was tragically destroyed in 2015 but, fortunately, the collection of wheat, barley, dryland legumes and forages was saved, meaning the genebank could be reestablished in Rabat, Morocco and Terbol, Lebanon.

Without the efforts of the ICARDA team and the existence of the Svalbard Vault, the genebank’s destruction would have been a major extinction event – wiping out thousands of crop samples that date back to the very origins of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent.

Unfinished business

The creation of the Seed Vault was a landmark moment for biodiversity conservation and every deposit is cause for celebration. But there is still much to do to ensure that crop diversity remains available to current and future generations.

On one level, genebanks need to continue to deposit new samples. Many smaller genebanks have not yet been able to duplicate their collections and CGIAR scientists support initiatives like the Crop Trust’s BOLD project, sharing expertise and capacity to help them send seeds to Svalbard.

The CGIAR genebanks themselves continue to back up as much of their collections as possible. Six Centers have already reached the safety duplication target of 90% for all or part of their collections, and others are expected to get there by 2026.

There is even more work to be done to provide an insurance policy for the crops that cannot be stored long-term as seed. That includes five of humanity’s ten most important crops – banana, potato, sweet potato, cassava and yam. CGIAR is therefore working closely with its partners to expand the use of cryopreservation, a secure, efficient means of conserving these crop.

The International Potato Center (CIP) has recently inaugurated a Cryo Vault, in Lima, Peru, which will be receiving cryopreserved safety copies of these critical crops from Latin American countries from 2025.

Most importantly, we need to ensure that a wider range of users can access and use the crop diversity that they need. That is why the new Genebanks Accelerator is investing in technologies like computer vision, genomics, AI chatbots and bioinformatics to provide richer information about the collections.

As the Seed Vault’s co-founder Cary Fowler has put it: these are living libraries for which we don’t yet have a complete card catalogue.  By filling in the missing information, we can better match the resources to users’ specific needs whether that is resilience to harsh climates, resistance to pests and diseases, exceptional nutrition, flavour or yield.

The Svalbard Vault is a crucial element of a broad global system for conserving and using crop diversity. Every level of that system, and the dedicated people involved, need our support if we are to feed a growing population in a changing climate.

Featured image credit: Michael Major for Crop Trust