The world used to cultivate more than 6,000 different plants but about 75% of crop diversity has been lost in the last century
Cali — Colombian agronomist Javier Gereda gestures proudly towards the sturdy bean plant and bright green seedlings he has spent the past seven years nurturing back from agricultural oblivion.
Set amid sugar cane fields near the southwestern Colombian city of Cali, the Future Seeds gene bank is run by CGIAR’s Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture . A new facility housing the collection has received about $17.2m in funding so far, including from the Colombian government, and an additional $17m donation from The Bezos Earth Fund, created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. and UN experts say we now get about 40% of our calories from three main crops — maize, wheat and rice.
One in nine people do not have enough food today, while the world population is expected to reach 9.8-billion by 2050. The bank provides free seed samples to researchers and farmers — often farming co-operatives looking to plant seeds once used by their ancestors, or more resistant varieties. “The bank is a way to protect biodiversity and conserve the biodiversity of crops that have already been lost in their native habitat,” Manrique said.
At the new Future Seeds gene bank building that will be fully operational in December, scientists are leveraging genomics — the study of genetic material — and integrating this with big data technology to develop more resilient crops.
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