Ibadan, Nigeria
May 20, 2009
Africa’s leading agricultural
research partner,
International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA), will make its second shipment
of African seeds to the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault (photo) in June. The move is
aimed at preserving the genetic resources of African crops.
On 30 January 2008, IITA made history as the first international
agricultural institute to have shipped 21 boxes filled with
7,000 unique seed samples of mandate crops from more than 36
African nations to the Vault.
“This year’s shipment will involve about 5,000 seed samples of
soybean, maize, bambara nut, cowpea, and African yam bean, in
more than 10 seed boxes,” said Dr. Dominique Dumet, Head of
IITA’s Genetic Resources Center.
“The whole aim of the shipment to Svalbard is about conservation
of genetic resources and agrobiodiversity for humanity,” she
added.
Agrobiodiversity—a term which captures all forms of life
directly relevant to agriculture: from crop varieties to crop
wild relatives, livestock, and also many other organisms such as
soil fauna, weeds, pests, and predators— is disappearing faster
than at any time since the demise of the dinosaurs.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme’s 4th
Global Environment Outlook report, the ongoing loss of
biodiversity will restrict future development options for rich
and poor countries with negative impacts on food security.
To stem the loss of agrobiodiversity, the IITA Genetic Resources
Center, which is located in Ibadan, Nigeria, has over the years,
conserved more than 28,000 accessions of IITA mandate crops.
The Center houses the world’s largest collection of cowpea—a key
staple in Africa, offering an inexpensive source of protein—
with over 15,000 unique varieties from 88 countries around the
world.
The Svalbard Seed Vault is another safety net designed to hold
duplicated genetic resources.
“It actually serves as a backup for genetic diversity. For
instance, there are some genes in the seeds that we are
conserving now that might solve problems of future generations,
such as lack of resistance to diseases or tolerance for
drought,” Dumet explained.
Located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard
Global Seed Vault secures a seedbank near the town of
Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago.
Africa has complex problems that plague agriculture and
people's lives. We develop agricultural solutions with our
partners to tackle hunger and poverty. Our award winning
research for development (R4D) is based on focused,
authoritative thinking anchored on the development needs of
sub-Saharan Africa. We work with partners in Africa and beyond
to reduce producer and consumer risks, enhance crop quality and
productivity, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is an
international non-profit R4D organization since 1967, governed
by a Board of Trustees, and supported primarily by the CGIAR. |
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