Arctic Global Seed Vault Welcomes New Seed Contribution
12.07.2010 - Flora & Fauna, Arctic
A seven-person delegation from the US Congress led by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat of Maryland, has delivered valuable varieties of New World chili peppers, hundreds of varieties of sorghum and other varieties of seeds to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard. These samples of seeds come from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) in Fort Collins, Colorado.
With the addition of the latest seeds from the US, the number of seeds in the Global Seed Vault was brought to more than 525,000, which makes it the most diverse assemblage of crop diversity amassed anywhere in the world. Besides the assortment of chili peppers, the Fort Collins collection also deposited melons, peanuts, beans, sesame, hibiscus, squash, gourd, and 448 different varieties of sorghum, a crop grown around the world used as a dietary staple for 500 million people in over 30 countries.
While the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has already sent tens of thousands of seeds from its National Plant Germplasm System to the Global Seed Vault since January 2008, they seek to eventually have the majority of the system’s 511,000 collections represented in Svalbard.
