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News:

It is a facility located on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean and it houses the world's largest collection of seeds.

How it was established?

Few more things:

What is the importance of seeds thar are safeguarded?

The seeds that are safeguarded in Svalbard are of value for food and agriculture, and of importance for research, plant breeding and education, in accordance with international laws; including the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

The seeds that are secured in the Seed Vault include crop varieties, farmers’ land races, breeding material and wild plants that are related to and could be gene donors to new varieties of crops. To date, Seed Vault holdings include more than 5,000 plant species.

The largest numbers of accessions stored in the Seed Vault are varieties of rice, wheat and barley crops; more than 150,000 samples of Wheat and rice and close to 80,000 samples of Barley.

Now, with respect to India:

India joined the global initiative in securing crop genetic diversity by depositing 25 ICAR accessions of pigeon pea in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) on April 9, 2014.

Where is India's seed vault?

At Chang La in the Himalayas, at a height of 17,300 feet, there is a storage facility with over 5,000 seed accessions. One accession consists of a set of seeds of one species collected from different locations or different populations.

Who maintains the vault?

The vault is a joint venture of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (which is part of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and the Defence Institute of High-Altitude Research (which is part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation).

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