Nicknamed the ‘doomsday vault’, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is part of Australia's first insurance policy for its seeds.

Credit: Global Crop Diversity Trust

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SYDNEY: After battling weeks of natural disasters, Australia has sent its first seeds to the frozen ‘doomsday’ vault on the Norwegian Island of Svalbard, as an insurance policy against further threats to our food security.

This is the first time that Australia has created a protected back up collection of seeds that can be accessed immediately if the country’s crops are damaged - an important step for a country that has no native food sources.

“Some would say that having seeds in Svalbard is the key to our future food security. We’re ensuring the genetic diversity of our crops is protected for the foreseeable future - and for crops to adapt to change they need as much genetic diversity as possible,” said Tony Gregson, the Australian farmer and Crawford Fund board member who will deliver the seeds to the vault.

Duplicate seeds in case of failure

Currently, when crops face a new stress, for example climate change or a new pest species, scientists look to local and international seed banks to find a relative of the crop that has genetic resistance to the problem.

But these seed banks are vulnerable to natural disasters, war and - particularly in Australia - lack of funding, and can’t be depended on in the worst-case scenario, said Gregson.

“Svalbard is built into solid rock, it’s 60 m above sea level and it’s in permanent permafrost. It’s probably the most secure place in the world for seeds. If one of our genebanks fails, at least we’ll have our duplicate seeds stored in a safe place where we can access them when we require.”

Queensland floods revealed vulnerability

The sealed Australian seed samples will arrive on Svalbard on 16 February 2011 and will able to survive at least 50-100 years in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault – often nicknamed the ‘doomsday vault’ – which is 1,300 km from the North Pole and was initially funded by a collection of countries, including Australia.

Sending seeds to Svalbard is particularly significant at this time, said Gregson, as three of the countries six seed banks have gone into crisis due to lack of funding over the past two years, and natural disasters such as the recent Queensland floods have demonstrated how vulnerable the country can be.

“We hope we will never need the seeds from the Svalbard vault, but the way the world is going, we probably will at some stage in the next 50-100 years,” he added.