ICARDA Delivers New Seed Deposit to the Arctic Vault
June 3, 2025 | Svalbard, Norway - Tucked deep inside a mountain in the Arctic Circle, a new batch of seeds from ICARDA has just joined the world’s most important freezer: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Our boxes arrived safely and were officially taken into the Vault on Thursday, June 3, 2025, joining nearly a million other seed samples from around the world.
The event coincided with a special visit from the UK’s Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, who were briefed on ICARDA’s unique seed collection, originally held in Syria. As one of the first depositors to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, ICARDA safely duplicated over 80% of its collection before evacuating the Syrian genebank in 2014 due to conflict. Since 2015, these safety duplicates have been used to rebuild the collection and resume international seed distribution from newly established genebanks in Morocco and Lebanon, where they’re now being used to develop better, more resilient crops for farmers in some of the world's most challenging environments. The ministers took time to recognize the global value of preserving crop diversity, especially in the face of climate change.
The new deposit includes 2,707 seed samples of faba bean, grasspea, vetch, medicago, pea, wild cicer, and wild lentil - many of which are landraces and wild relatives collected from different countries around the world. These seeds carry natural traits that help crops survive drought, heat, pests, and poor soils. In other words, they’re built for an unpredictable future.
“This latest deposit is another small but meaningful step to make sure the crops we all depend on aren’t lost to time, war, or weather,” said ICARDA’s Rama Jawad, “We’re proud to be part of a global safety net.”
Today’s seed industry often focuses on a narrow set of crops and traits. ICARDA’s mission is to keep the full spectrum of diversity alive because the more options we have, the better we can face whatever challenges tomorrow brings.
And so, another handful of hope goes into the mountain. Carefully packed, logged, and frozen in time, waiting for a day when the world might need them most.
The journey of these seeds to the Vault was made possible by the continued partnership with the Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust), NordGen, and the Government of Norway.
