Safeguarding Africa’s diverse seed against climate threats
PLANT scientists from across Africa and around the world deposited seeds of their most important produce in the Arctic’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault in late May to protect global food security.
An African eggplant with nutrient-packed leaves, a hardy groundnut from Benin and varieties of okra, yam, pearl millet and sorghum from Nigeria, were just a few of thousands of treasures deposited in the international icy vault with one goal — to conserve seeds for a food-secure future in a changing climate.
The conservation of diverse food crops has become increasingly crucial as extreme weather and climate change challenge agriculture.
Flooding in east Africa, drought in Southern Africa and dangerous heat waves in West Africa all devastated food production and are an important reminder of why we must safeguard the world’s agricultural heritage.
The future of food depends on continuous conservation and availability of the vast genetic diversity held in the Arctic’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault and around 1 700 international, national and local ‘gene banks’.
Together they hold more than 8,6 million seed samples, each with genetic traits crucial for adapting crops to withstand extremes of heat, drought, pests, disease and more.
However, many gene banks — particularly in Africa — struggle to keep their seed collections alive long-term.
They are battling climate change as well as inadequate funding and deteriorating storage conditions, leaving them ill-equipped to maintain their collections. And once a crop variety is lost, it is gone forever.
over the past few decades, numerous examples have demonstrated the immense value of gene banks. Crop breeders have used conserved genetic diversity to develop new drought-tolerant varieties of durum wheat.
Similarly, wild relatives of potatoes preserved in gene banks have contributed to breeding varieties resistant to late blight, a disease that causes approximately US$14 billion in annual crop losses worldwide. Unpredictable climate hampers
harvesting seeds
A growing challenge for many gene banks is seed regeneration: planting seeds that are losing vitality and harvesting fresh, vigorous seeds. Doing so depends on stable and favourable growing conditions. But today, this work must be done under an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Gene banks need funding for irrigation, secure power supplies, freezers, solar-powered cold rooms, laboratories and other resources that maintain buildings and dayto-day operations.
In Zimbabwe, for example, the Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT) raced to safeguard eight crucial crops during a protracted drought that swept across Southern Africa.
operating across a third of the nation’s rural districts, beginning in 2023, it aimed to regenerate 1 450 seeds of finger millet, maize, rice, pearl millet, Bambara groundnuts, sorghum, groundnuts and cowpeas.
However, the drought conditions and higher temperatures jeopardised the effort, threatening the harvest of seeds meant for future research and conservation.
In Mali, drought during planting and early growth caused seeds of diverse crops — from wild local watermelon to sorghum — to fail.
Persistent efforts and investment in irrigation later saved some crops.
The Philippines’ national seed collection is still recovering from losses caused by Typhoon Xangsane in 2006, which flooded the building, damaged equipment and resulted in extensive seed loss.
Gene banks struggling to keep their seeds alive need funding for irrigation, secure power supplies, freezers, solar-powered cold rooms, laboratories and other resources that maintain buildings and day-to-day operations.
Significant efforts are underway to fortify gene banks and protect crop genetic diversity.
The Biodiversity for opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) project, supported by the Norwegian government, is a 10-year initiative to enhance food and nutrition security through the conservation and use of crop diversity.
It assists 42 partners in 30 countries worldwide (including 15 in Africa) to regenerate their seed collections and place safety duplicates in gene banks like the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Success is possible. In 2022, BOLD supported Zimbabwe’s Lupane State University (LSU) to upgrade its irrigation system. This proved crucial during a heat wave in october, enabling the regeneration of around 3 000 accessions of 10 crops in the Kalahari sands, a dry and fragile environment. Saving seeds is an insurance policy
against hunger over the past two years, BOLD has contributed nearly US$500 000 to gene bank equipment and the Seeds for resilience project has invested about US$400 000 in seed collections from ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia. These investments have made a big difference, but the gap in resources remains large.
Humanity’s insurance policy against hunger resides in crop gene banks. Their seed collections shield against the effects of climate extremes on global food production.
Substantial and dependable funding is crucial. Investments need to strengthen gene banks, including enhanced staffing and training, advanced storage solutions, effective regeneration processes and consistent operational budgets.
Knowing that a single climate catastrophe can wipe out irreplaceable crop genetic resources, governments everywhere must commit to long-term, stable funding for these gene banks. Failure to do so risks their collapse, and the future of global food security.