"A door about a hand's width opens into the frigid facility that protects the seeds that may one day play a fundamental role in the event of droughts, pests, floods, or the many other disasters that can ravage the earth and, consequently, the food supply for people and animals. Ukraine possesses an immense collection of biodiversity that cannot be found anywhere else. Who knows how useful it may be to us in the future. Its qualities can still be explored; it is like a treasure."
"In early 2022, Russian bombs rained down on the grounds of the National Seed Bank of Ukraine in Kharkiv (in the east), and the vast plant wealth of what is known as the breadbasket of Europe was horribly threatened. A team of scientists, technicians, and their families then risked their lives to secretly set aside a handful of each variety stored in Kharkiv in small sachets over the course of a year."
Several seeds of common wheat (Triticum aestivum L., passport UA0107997) and 51,003 other varieties of barley, chickpeas, forage crops and sunflowers are now stored in a newly inaugurated Duplicate Center for Plant Genetic Resources of Ukraine. The center contains a 38.4 square meter chamber kept between -18 and -20°C with seeds in airtight bags and boxes. In early 2022, bombs damaged the National Seed Bank in Kharkiv and a team secretly saved duplicates by packing small sachets and moving them by refrigerated truck. Duplicates were held in a temporary warehouse in March 2023 and now reside in a permanent, secured facility supported by European funds and the FAO; the exact location is undisclosed for security reasons.
Read at english.elpais.com
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