Ensuring the safety of our seeds
Shipment of ICRISAT mandate crops to Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Photo: ICRISAT
With the recent shipment of 3702 accessions, 91% of ICRISAT’s genebank collection has been safety duplicated at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The shipment included 2041 accessions of sorghum, 969 of pearl millet, 39 of pigeonpea, 221 of finger millet, 80 of groundnut and 350 of chickpea.
As part of CGIAR Genebanks standards, at least 90% of the accessions that are “in Trust” must be safety duplicated in Svalbard. Many of the accessions are part of the Regional Genebanks collections that were sent to India for long-term conservation and for safety duplication. ICRISAT Genebank has a strict agenda on regeneration of accessions and seed multiplication as per genebank standards, to be able to not only conserve the accessions properly but also to be able to safety duplicate them.
ICRISAT Genebank has Standard Operating Procedures for all its activities. All packing and labelling were done by the genebank trained staff with special materials. The aluminium foils were developed specially for the safety duplication in Svalbard. The common ones, used in all genebanks’ long-term cold rooms have three layers. The ones used for Svalbard have four layers and last longer. These packets are then sealed in special black boxes designed for shipment to Svalbard.
Watch the Times of India reportage here
