Source:Reuters
Author:Alister Doyle

The UN Global Crop Diversity Trust has received US$37.5 million to fund a seed storage plan intended to help safeguard crops vital to developing nations from climate change and other threats. The funding, US$30 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the U.S. and US$7.5 million from Norway's government, will go to preserve genes of crops grown in Africa, Asia, and Latin America such as cassava, yams, bananas, and rice. Cary Fowler, the Trust's director, says the money will "secure over 95 percent of the endangered crop diversity held in developing country gene banks, many of which are under-funded and in disrepair". Crop varieties from around the world, some of which may contain important and useful genetic characteristics, are being lost almost daily, according to the article. Genetic material secured with the new funding will be housed at a "doomsday vault" in the Norwegian Arctic, under construction by the Trust. In addition to preserving genetic material, the new funds will also be used to help set up a global computer database allowing farmers and others to search available collections. Fowler says one possibility is to model the global computer database after the online bookseller Amazon, to link up national crop records. [The Global Crop Diversity Trust is housed at the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Bioversity International, in Rome, Italy.] The article can be viewed online at the link below.

http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Genetics.aspx?infoId=14487

Synopsis from: Meridian Food Security and AgBiotech News