[ASC-list] First Australian Seeds to Arctic Vault
Cathy Reade
creade at squirrel.com.au
Fri Feb 4 04:50:04 UTC 2011
The Crawford Fund
MEDIA RELEASE
4 February 2011
Contact: Cathy Reade 0413 575 934
cathy.reade at crawfordfund.org
Interviews possible prior to 11 February
FIRST HISTORIC SHIPMENT OF AUSTRALIAN SEEDS TO ARCTIC VAULT
An Australian farmer will soon leave the floods and heat of the Wimmera, don
special
protective clothing and go through a variety of quarantine and other safety
checks at a
remote frozen location in Norway to make the historical first deposit of
crop seeds from
Australia in the Arctic 'doomsday' seed vault. The seeds have already been
through the
hoops of national and international protocols and are waiting to be taken to
Svalbard on 16
February.
"Like the seeds on their way to Svalbard, Australian farming has gone a long
way
considering all our food crops are exotic to this country. We have depended
almost
completely on other countries for seeds to feed us and make us a major force
in global
agriculture," said Dr Tony Gregson, a member of the Crawford Fund board, who
will be
joined in Svalbard by Professor Edwina Cornish, Deputy Vice-Chancellor
(Research) at
Monash University and Mr James Choi, the Australian Ambassador to Norway.
"Like me, many Australian farmers have been dealing with extremes in weather
which are
harsh reminders of the need to research and have access to crops that can
adapt to
changing conditions and new pests and diseases," said Tony.
While Australia has only just organised its first shipment, it played an
important role in the
vault's establishment. Through AusAID and the Grains Research and
Development
Corporation, Australia was one of the first countries to support the Global
Crop Diversity
Trust which operates the seed vault in partnership with the Norwegian
government and the
Nordic Genetic Resource Center in Sweden.
"Australia has been a generous and committed supporter of the Global Crop
Diversity Trust
from the beginning. Australia's unique geography means that, perhaps more
than any other
nation, it is acutely aware of how vulnerable agriculture is, and of the
vital importance of
crop diversity in confronting the challenges to each harvest. We are
thrilled that Australian
seeds will now be benefitting from the kind of protection which the Vault
provides," said Cary
Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
"We have gained so much from other countries and generous public research
bodies that
have freely provided us with their seeds, and it's time we reciprocate. It's
satisfying to see
Australia start to improve arrangements so that our germplasm is safe and
more freely
available to the global scientific and agricultural communities," said Tony,
a grain grower
from Victoria's Wimmera region who has extensive national and international
experience in
biodiversity conservation for food security and is passionate about plant
genetic resource
conservation.
"I hope that this first small shipment of Australian germplasm will be
followed by others so
that more of Australia's crops are safe. Australia also needs to move
towards secure funding
and better management of its own collections, and to living up to its
international treaty
obligations, to share its seeds globally and help feed the world," he said.
The Crawford Fund's mission is to increase Australia's engagement in
international agricultural
research, development and education for the benefit of developing countries
and Australia
"Just like the rest of the world's seed collections, ours are vulnerable to
a wide range of
threats such as natural catastrophes, and perhaps surprisingly in a
relatively wealthy
country like Australia, lack of adequate funding. For want of a
Federal/State agreement,
Australia has seen a number of its collections defunded."
The Australian deposit is coming from the Australian Temperate Field Crops
Collection in
Horsham Victoria. Our other collections are in Tamworth (Australian Winter
Cereals
Collection), Perth (Australian Trifolium Genetic Resource Centre), and
Canberra (Australian
Indigenous Relatives of Crops Collection). The pasture collections in
Biloela (Australian
Tropical Crops and Forages Collection) and Adelaide (Australian Medicago
Genetic
Resource Centre) have been mothballed.
Tony suggests a range of other activities to boost the Australian
contribution to global food
security and help shape the future of our own rural industries and the
communities they
support including:
. commitments to 50:50 governments:industry funding for Australia's
seedbanks, which
are currently facing underfunding and closure.
. appointment of a national co-ordinator of our genebanks, to be the
Australian focal point
for our collections who can serve organisational, management and advocacy
roles.
. establishment of a national database and authority for Australia's
implementation of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,
the
cornerstone of global germplasm exchange.
"I would also like to see Australia commit to further collection of our
native and unique
genetic resources such as wild relatives of sorghum, rice and soybean that
will help in the
development of new crops in the face of climate change. Australia also has
globally
significant forest tree species and our micro-organism, plant pathogen, and
insect pest
collections are all essential to Australia's status as a vibrant global food
producer."
As the Global Seed Vault nears its third anniversary, it is well on its way
to ensuring that one
day all of humanity's existing food crop varieties are safely protected in a
frozen
environment from any threat to agricultural production, natural or manmade.
Tony has worked internationally and in Australia on the policy frameworks to
conserve the
germplasm so important to farmers in Australia and worldwide. In addition to
his work on
food security with the Crawford Fund, he is Chairman of the CRC for
Molecular Plant
Breeding and Plant Health Australia, and immediate past-Chairman of
Bioversity
International and former board member of CIMMYT, the international maize and
wheat
research institute in Mexico which was responsible for breeding semi-dwarf
wheat varieties
that proved so productive in Australia's harsh conditions.
About the Vault
The seed vault was constructed deep in a mountain on a remote Norwegian
archipelago near
the North Pole as a fail-safe back-up to existing crop collections around
the world. Collections
are constantly under threat from wars and natural disasters but also small
but important
threats like lack of funding to pay for electricity to store seeds in
refrigerators. The seeds in
the vault are the property of the country or institution that sent them and
are available in the
public domain through these institutions. Crop collections around the world
serve the daily
needs of farmers and plant breeders in their work to find new traits that
can boost yields or
address problems posed by diseases, pests or shifting climate conditions.
You can find
further background on the seed vault at
http://www.croptrust.org/main/arcticseedvault.php?itemid=842
And photos of the seed vault are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/croptrust/sets/72157623845148542/
NB: Tony Gregson leaves Australia on 11 February. For pre-departure
interviews or to make
arrangements to talk to Tony from Svalbard, contact Cathy Reade on
0413575934 prior to 10
February. Thereafter, contact Jeff Haskins on +254 729 871 422
jhaskins at burnesscommunications.com
Cathy Reade
Coordinator - Public Awareness
Crawford Fund
Ph/Fax: 07 54483095
Mobile: 0413 575 934
www.crawfordfund.org
The Crawford Fund's mission is to increase Australia's engagement in
international agricultural research, development and education for the
benefit of developing countries and Australia.
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