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Rare wheat from the mountains of Tajikistan at Arctic seed vault

25.02.2012

Rare wheat collected from the “Roof of the World” in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan; amaranth, barley and once-forgotten forage crops that could sustain livestock in these climatestressed times are among the seed samples arriving this week for the fourth birthday of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV). The Global Crop Diversity Trust maintains the seed vault, in partnership with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resources Center, as a back-up to the living crop diversity collections housed in “genebanks” around the world. The seeds are the first from the former Soviet Republic to be deposited in Svalbard. Wheat grows in abundance on Tajikistan's remote mountainsides, across varying elevations and amid hot summers and blistering, snowy winters. And while Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, experts say it hosts a rich diversity of a food crop that 2 billions of people depend upon for survival. Such diversity is particularly important today, as scientists are scouring genebanks in search of wheat that is resistant to a resurgent and virulent strain of wheat stem rust that can devastate yields.

Photo (c) agrilifetoday / Flickr