More than 10,000 samples of 59 vegetable species from the WorldVeg genebank in Taiwan duplicated for storage in Korea.

SHANHUA – 27 December 2021 – Duplicates of seed from the World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), an international agricultural research institute with headquarters in Shanhua, Taiwan, will soon be en route to Korea’s Rural Development Administration (RDA) to protect the world’s agricultural diversity and heritage.

WorldVeg maintains the world’s largest public collection of vegetable seed. “Safety duplicates” are prepared periodically for storage in locations outside Taiwan to safeguard this precious collection. Should a natural disaster or other calamity damage or destroy the primary collection, the WorldVeg Genebank team can begin rebuilding with seed stored in the backup facilities.

“We are grateful to have access to RDA’s high-quality genebank facility for the storage of safety duplicates,” said Dr. Maarten van Zonneveld, WorldVeg Genebank Manager. “We take our stewardship of this precious resource very seriously, and by placing duplicates of the seed in the WorldVeg collection with RDA Korea and in other genebanks, as well as in the long-term storage at the Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway, we can help ensure its safety, now and in the future.”

Dr. Seok-Beom Kang, an RDA researcher seconded to WorldVeg, was present to accept the seed on behalf of the institution.

To ensure sufficient seed stocks for duplication, genebank staff sow seed of the specific accessions (samples) to be regenerated, grow the plants, and harvest the fresh seed, which is then cleaned, dried for three to six months depending on the crop species, and packed in foil envelopes for storage in cold rooms.

In 2021 the genebank team began preparing 10,590 accessions of 59 species to send to RDA. The shipment consists of 75 boxes of seed.

The WorldVeg Genebank makes seed available to research institutions, farmers, and seed companies worldwide. This vast collection, with more than 63,000 accessions representing 456 species, provides the genetic diversity needed to improve vegetable crops, which are a vital source of nutrients for the human diet.