Seed conservation for life preservation

Integrated within INIAV, the Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank is located in Braga and is currently coordinated by Ana Maria Barata, GREEN-IT member. It holds over 47000 samples of 150 species of plants and is crucial for the preservation of Portuguese seeds. Newspaper Público caught a glimpse of the preparation of seeds at the Bank to be sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

The Global Seed Vault serves as a backup for gene bank collections of the World to secure the foundation of the World’s future food supply. The Vault holds duplicates of seed samples as a safeguard against catastrophic losses.

Outside of the routine maintenance shipping of seeds to the Global Seed Vault, the Portuguese Plant Germplasm Bank has also sent seeds under the scope of a project that looks to evaluate seed longevity. “The longevity of seeds will be studied for a period of 100 years”, explains Ana Maria Barata to Público. The last of the 3 boxes of seeds has left this March. “If there are no seeds, there is no food”, states Ana Maria Barata to Público regarding the importance of these shippings.

Read the full Público article here.

Credits to Público