Thai rice seeds enter ‘doomsday’ vault for global crop preservation

Thai rice seeds were among the 14,022 new samples of tree and crop species deposited into Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway on Tuesday, Reuters reported. 

The so-called “doomsday” vault, which preserves food crop seeds from across the world, is located in man-made caves on the remote Norwegian Artic island of Spitsbergen. Designed to withstand global disasters, including nuclear war and climate change, the vault serves as a critical backup for the world’s gene banks. 

Established in 2008, the Svalbard Seed Vault safeguards the genetic material of thousands of plant species. Stored in permafrost conditions, it has received contributions from gene banks worldwide and played a crucial role between 2015 and 2019 in restoring seed collections damaged during the Syrian civil war. 

“The seeds deposited this week represent not just biodiversity, but also the knowledge, culture and resilience of the communities that steward them,” Stefan Schmitz, executive director of the crop trust, said in a statement.

This article has been republished from The Nation.