Why Seed Banks Are Important

By Dr. Jacqueline A. Soule

There are three main reasons why seed banks are critical in today’s world:

1. Seed banks store the seeds of crops for restarting crops in cases of crop failure.

2. Seed banks preserve wild crop relatives and crop varieties that are no longer grown, to help maintain agricultural diversity. These plants contain genetic traits that may have value for crop breeding. In this regard, seed banks are vital for global food security, as they provide plants that may have traits that impart tolerance to higher temperatures, drought, and increased disease and pest outbreaks predicted with global climate change.

3. Seed banks are also important for the preservation of biodiversity and the conservation of rare plants.

There are approximately 1,300 seed banks worldwide. Efforts are ongoing to store as many wild plant species and crop varieties as possible. Most seed banks store additional sets of their collections at separate sites as insurance against loss.

In the 1970’s, a rust fungus was threatening the entire U.S. corn crop. Scientists turned to gene banks and the seeds of wild corn stored. In the stored seeds they found germplasm (genes) that was resistant to the fungus, and it was used to breed new, rust-resistant, corn varieties.

Following the devastating 2005 tsunamis in Asia, the seed bank of the International Rice Research Institute was able to supply farmers with seed of a rice variety that would grow in soils which had been covered by seawater.

The importance of backup seed storage was recently demonstrated in Aleppo, Syria with the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) seed bank. When ICARDA’s facilities were captured by Islamic State fighters in 2014, the staff was evacuated, but it was not possible to save the seeds. Fortunately, duplicates of 87 percent of the seed collections were in backup storage in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, in Norway. New ICARDA facilities are being set up in Lebanon and Morocco where seeds which had been stored at Svalbard will serve as the basis for renewed research and future seed banking.

What is a Seed Bank? A seed bank is a place designed for the long-term storage of many seeds collected in many different places. Depending on the species, seeds are dried to a low moisture (usually less than 5 percent). Then the seeds are stored at -18°C or lower. Because seeds degrade over time, the seeds need to be replanted periodically and fresh seeds collected for another round of long-term storage.

The Desert Legume Program Seed Bank

The Desert Legume Program (DELEP) focuses on wild species of plants in the legume family, also known as the pea or bean family (Fabaceae) - and specifically legumes from dry regions around the world. The DELEP seed bank currently has over 4,100 seed collections representing nearly 1,400 species of arid land legumes originating in 67 countries on six continents.

DELEP distributes seeds upon request to researchers, governmental and non-governmental agencies, and private individuals around the world. These seeds are used for many purposes, including: crop breeding and improvement; pasture and forage crops; biomedical research; soil improvement; erosion control; forestry; wildlife habitat improvement; botanical garden displays; education; and for landscape trials.

DELEP’s seeds are housed at the Agriculture Experiment Station in Tucson. Many of the collections are backed up and stored in the USDA’s National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, in Fort Collins, Colorado. Some collections are also stored at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a select honor.

The Desert Legume Program seed bank is an accredited collection of the North American Plant Conservation Consortium. DELEP is a joint project of Boyce Thompson Arboretum and the University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.