For the first time, seed varieties from Spain have been incorporated into the world’s largest security collection of agricultural biodiversity, located in the Arctic. Our country has a great wealth of biodiversity, as it is a bridge between Europe, Latin America and Africa.
The award ceremony was attended by the Vice-President of International Relations of the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Ángeles Gómez Borrego, and the researcher Luis Guaschof the Plant Genetic Resources Center of the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), which was responsible for the storage of plant varieties.
“The enormous natural biodiversity that Spain has, thanks to its natural conditions, must be preserved not only in our country, but also in a global project like the World Seed Bank of Svalbard. The heritage of humanity must be seen as a challenge for everyone and this is our first contribution”, commented Guasch.
The enormous natural biodiversity that Spain has, thanks to its natural conditions, must be preserved not only in our country, but also in a global project like the World Seed Bank of Svalbard.
A pioneering infrastructure
The Svalbard Seed Bank, a species of Noah’s Ark plant, is a global scientific facility located on an island in the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. It stores over a million seed samples from different crops from almost every country in the world; the largest collection of agricultural biodiversity.
“This material, also known as plant genetic resourcesconstitutes the basis of almost all our food”, guarantees Guasch.
“There are about 1,080 Spanish varieties”, details the scientist. “Of them: 300 are winter cereals, 114 of which correspond to wheat; 510 are legumes, of which 189 are beans; 200 are horticultural, 81 being tomatoes and 108 corn varieties,” he adds. The duration of the deposit is generally 10 years, renewable.
The deposit plan for the samples of CRF baseline collection started over 6 years ago, following detailed work protocols. This is because in order for samples to be recent and remain viable for as long as possible, perhaps hundreds of years, they must be multiplied in the field under the right conditions, without crossing or mixing with other varieties, maintaining the identity of the varieties.
This material, also known as plant genetic resources, forms the basis of almost all of our food.
Image of the event at the World Seed Bank in Svalbard. / CSIC communication
Image of the event at the World Seed Bank in Svalbard. / CSIC communication
A project with international ambition
The project is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the international organization Global Crop Diversity Trust (CROP Trust), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Norwegian government, which made the installation a commitment to the conservation of plant genetic resources in order to be able to face, if necessary, the challenges posed by climate change and other potential global threats.
The Spanish system for the conservation of plant genetic resources established by Law 30/2006, of July 26, on seeds and seedlings, is based on a system of duplicates or backups of active or exchanged collections. The INIA-CSIC Plant Genetic Resources Center is responsible for the long-term conservation of seed-form inputs or varieties.
“Their goal is to keep the live seedsreason why periodic tests are established to monitor its viability, both in the CRF security collection and in the rest of the Spanish banks and, if necessary, it is multiplied or regenerated in the field”, continues Guasch.
Sending part of the seed collection to the Svalbard Dome is not a replacement for this security system, but an additional protection mechanism. “Only once was it necessary to go to the bank of Svalbard to request seeds, on the occasion of the regeneration of the samples from the bank that existed in Syriathe Icarda, which was destroyed by the war”, recalls the researcher.
Its objective is to keep the seeds alive, so periodic tests are established to monitor their viability.
More than 89 depositaries have already sent their samples to Svalbard. Among them are the international conservation centers linked to the FAOlarge countries and the vast majority of European states.
When the Svalbard Summit was created, Spain made an extraordinary financial contribution to FAO through the Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Ibero-America, this being the first time it has sent seeds.
This agreement led by INIA-CSIC shows Spain’s commitment to conserving the biodiversity and underlines the actions taken in the CRF to improve the resilience of agricultural systems and their capacity to adapt to climate change.