By Maytaal Angel

LONDON (Reuters – The genetic code for almost 2,000 crops could be permanently lost in underground vaults located near Ukraine’s battlegrounds.

Crop Trust (a non-profit organisation established by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation) revealed that the risk was highlighted earlier in this month, when damage to a research facility located near Ukraine’s national seeds bank brought attention to the issue.

Kharkiv is the location of both Ukraine’s seed bank and facility. This region has been subject to intense bombardment from Russia.

Reuters couldn’t determine what caused the damage. Crop Trust stated that the research center had been damaged, but refused to provide further details, citing security concerns.

This was only a small escape. It was only 4 percent of Ukraine’s seeds store which, at the time, is the 10th largest in its category in the entire world.

“Seed banks offer a type of life insurance. Crop Trust executive director Stefan Schmitz stated that seed banks provide materials to breed new plants resistant to droughts, pests and diseases.

“It would be tragic if Ukraine’s seed bank were to be destroyed.”

It was impossible to reach the director at the seed bank, Ukraine’s Academy of Science declined to comment, and Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond immediately to requests for comments on the damage.

To breed resilient plants, researchers rely on seed banks’ diverse genetic material.

These are essential to ensure that food can be produced in sufficient quantities to sustain 7.9 million people each year, as extreme weather conditions become more common.

The conflict between Russia, Ukraine and China, which are the third and fourth largest world grain exporters respectively has exacerbated food price inflation, and created the possibility of food scarcity. There have been protests in the developing countries, who normally get their grain from Ukraine.

SYRIA SAVED BY ARCTIC BACKUP

The lessons learned by the Syrian war have been that it is crucial to backup seeds using the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norway), the most important and largest seed duplication or backup facility.

After the destruction of a Syrian seed bank, Svalbard vault allowed researchers to receive replacement seeds of wheat, barley, and other grasses suitable for dry areas in 2015.

Svalbard has more than one million seeds stored in its vault, which was built in the Arctic mountains.

This includes 4% of Ukraine’s 150,000 seed – more than 1,800 cropping.

Crop Trust is a German-based international organization whose only purpose is to protect crop diversity. It has provided funds to Ukraine for copying seeds. However, security issues and logistical problems related to war and natural cycles make it difficult to accelerate the process.

Schmitz estimates that only 10% of Ukraine’s seed stocks could be back up in a year. This is because the seeds must be grown, planted and harvested correctly before duplicates can be taken and sent to Svalbard.

Schmitz suggested that an emergency solution would be to skip duplication and simply ship the collection to Svalbard. However, this may not be possible in times of war.

Syrian seeds are from Fertile Crescent. It is where established farming was believed to have originated. Ukraine has also a prominent place in agriculture.

Grethe Helene Evjen (a senior adviser to the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food) said “Agriculture is Ukraine has roots back into prehistoric times.” She also added that many of Ukraine’s seeds are unique.

Evjen claimed that while the ministry would be willing to store and duplicate all Ukraine’s seeds at Svalbard for free, it has not yet received any request from Ukrainian authorities.