Nearly 10,000 new varieties of crops from around the world are being added to the ‘doomsday’ seed vault in the Arctic as part of efforts to ensure global food security.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, on an island off Norway’s northern coast, already stores 825,000 samples of seeds which represent 13,000 years of agricultural history, in conditions which preserve them for decades.

The vault provides a back-up to the network of seed banks around the world which store, grow and replenish thousands of varieties of crops − but which can be threatened by war, accidents and natural disasters.

Protecting the diversity of the world’s crops is “fundamental” for ensuring food security in the face of climate change, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), which manages the vault, warns.

A series of deliveries of seeds to Svalbard this month will help in that fight, the GCDT said.

Four shipments from major gene banks based in Bulgaria, Colombia, India and Taiwan are delivering varieties from more than 100 countries − including types of wheat, barley, maize, sorghum, peal millet, chickpea and Asian and African eggplant.

Protecting the diversity of the world’s crops is ‘fundamental’

Seeds of a number of indigenous African vegetables, including okra, amaranth, spider plant and jute mallow are also being deposited. Preserving different food plant varieties will help breed and develop crops that can withstand a changing climate.

Marie Haga, executive director of GCDT, said: “The Svalbard Global Seed Vault symbolises how we can create a long-term, sustainable and positive solution to feed the world forever. The issue of hunger is global, and increasingly urgent. If we continue as we are, food production will be reduced and food prices will rise. Even more people will go hungry.

“Crop diversity is essential if we are to provide more food, more nutritious food and affordable food for the poor.

“Maintaining crop diversity, and the genetic wealth it provides to current and future generations, is beneficial not just to crop breeders, but to farmers that feed all of us.”

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