Seed Collection Effort Aims to Safeguard 21 Food Crops (2/2)

Some orphan crops cannot be grown from seeds. Instead, cuttings, roots and cell cultures will be gathered from gene banks. And the project will finance research into lower-cost ways to protect these crops. The project will also finance an information system for plant breeders to search gene banks worldwide. They will be able to look for plants with the right qualities to resist new diseases and the effects of climate change.

Still another goal is to improve communications between farmers and plant breeders. The organizers say they look forward to a time when breeders in Africa can find the same crop genetic information as those in Europe and North America.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to provide 30 million dollars for the project. Norway will provide seven and one-half million dollars.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust says at least four hundred fifty thousand seed samples will go into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The trust and the government of Norway are building this in the side of a mountain on an island near the North Pole.