Another shipment of precious WorldVeg vegetable seed made the long trek beyond the Arctic Circle for safekeeping in the Global Seed Vault. DG Marco Wopereis was the courier. 

World Vegetable Center Director General Marco Wopereis traveled with a little more baggage than usual when he accompanied a shipment of 700 seed samples of 23 vegetable species from the WorldVeg Genebank to be stored in the Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway.

Genebank managers and administrators from agricultural research institutes gathered at the vault on 25 February 2020 for a Seed Summit with the theme “Genetic diversity for more resilient food systems” to discuss the challenges ahead for global crop and food security.

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg was the guest of honor at the event.

Marco was among the 60 genebank representatives to make the largest seed deposit ever in vault. More than 65,000 new seed sample duplicates were deposited by 36 genebanks—an important step in securing the world’s crop diversity.

In his summit address, Marco told the group that the power of vegetables is in their diversity. He emphasized the importance of safeguarding the diversity of cultivated vegetable crops, including global favorites like tomato and less well-known but nutritious and hardy traditional vegetables.

“Vegetable diversity provides farmers greater resilience against climate change while offering farmers and processors more market opportunities,” said Marco. “WorldVeg employs multiple pathways to connect vegetable diversity with people for healthier lives and more resilient livelihoods.”

The Center provides access to genebank accessions through an on-line system, works with the private sector through consortia in Asia and Africa, establishes public-private sector networks for legumes such as mungbean, and connects with the informal seed sector for less-well known but sturdy and nutritious traditional vegetables.

“Vegetable wild relatives and traditional vegetables are threatened and poorly conserved globally,” he said. “These plants need urgent attention.” Vegetables overall should receive more attention in global R&D efforts to understand, safeguard and use vegetable diversity.