Most of the seeds can be kept for decades in cold and dry containers but how long they survive depends on the species and many other factors. Keeping the seeds alive is partly science and partly art. Today, it is estimated that the world’s seed banks contain more than two million seed samples of agricultural plants. Seed banks represent our efforts to counterbalance the widespread loss of biodiversity. This means that changes in climate, new diseases or other environmental changes can have widespread impacts for food security. Today, 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species. Uniform gene base implies both global and local risks. In fact some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost since 1990s as farmers worldwide have left their multiple local landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties. But with more global and uniform economies and controlled production environments we have become to rely on fewer and fewer of these diverse variants. During the millennia a wealth of cultivars has been bred to suit different growing conditions climate, soil, day-length, diseases or pests and societal needs. The plants we use today are cultivated variants - the results of thousands of years of breeding efforts – that have been adapted to our tastes, needs and industrial production methods. Plant genetic resources are one of the most valuable assets of human societies. General conditions for a project to receive funding from the Nordic Council of Ministers and guidance for our project process can be found here.
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