Ireland sows seeds of diversity and prosperity with global vault deposit

AN official deposit of Irish agriculture seeds to the recently opened Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway was made yesterday.

The vault, constructed in permafrost conditions inside a mountain on a remote Norwegian island, is designed to store duplicates of seeds from collections around the globe.

It will help to ensure the genetic diversity of the world’s food crops is preserved for future generations and is seen as an important contribution toward the reduction of hunger and poverty in developing countries.

The Irish deposit consists of some of the most important seeds in the reference collections of Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Almost two thirds of a million seeds, representing unique accessions of Ireland’s forage grasses, potatoes, wheat, oats and barley collections will be deposited at Svalbard.

It is part of Ireland’s international commitment to maintain a broad genetic resource base for future needs.

Minister of State Trevor Sargent said the event marking the deposit of Irish seed was an occasion to celebrate the skill, dedication and hard work of the plant breeders in Ireland over our recent history, as well as seed diversity conservationists.

He thanked both the Norwegian Government and the Global Crop Diversity Trust through the Norwegian Ambassador to Ireland Oyvind Nordsletten for their respective roles in the development, completion and ongoing management of the vault.

Mr Sargent also underlined the Government’s commitment to the programme through its regular annual contribution of €1 million to the trust from Irish Aid over the past three years.

He said the Global Seed Vault is a major asset in its effort to protect global agricultural crop diversity.