News

A box containing 25 accessions of pigeon pea marks first-ever seed deposit from India to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

In April 2014, India made its first seed deposit to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with one box of 25...

Valencia, Spain (15-16 May 2014) – Why eggplants? Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an important vegetable crop, especially in tropical and subtropical areas of the world. According to FAO statistics, eggplant ranks 6th, after...

NEW AUSTRALIAN SEED DEPOSIT

Indigenous crop wild relatives, brassica, oats among seeds that find safe haven in Svalbard Global Seed Vault

It is cold and white outside. The wind blows snowflakes sideways. But the members of the...

The potato is the world's number three food, feeding more than a billion people. But potato late blight may be the world's number one plant disease threat.

The fungus-like organism known as late blight is probably the worst...

Sorghum comes in a strong fifth among the world's important cereal crops – and nothing else matches its diversity of forms and uses.

A stalwart of hot and dry areas, sorghum demands few inputs and provides more than just grain in...

By LUIGI GUARINO | Director of Science and Programs

We use 43 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile. 89.2% of all statistics are made up on the spot. You can probably think of examples. Numbers such as these have been repeated so...

By LUIGI GUARINO | Director of Science and Programs

There’s a reason why the tag line for the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is “Fiat panis,” or “Let there be bread.” Bread is more than simply a food, it’s a potent symbol...

For half the world, rice makes up 80% of every meal. Thus, it's a concern for all of us that rice is so vulnerable to the escalating impacts of natural disasters.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami swamped more than 46,000 hectares of...

MUSCAT, OMAN — A contribution from Norway today provided USD 23.7 million to conserve and sustainably manage the world’s most important food crops, citing the critical need for crop diversity at a time when populations are soaring...

The U.S. Drought Monitor website does not look pretty. Iowa has seen two consecutive years of drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says corn production decreased by 13 percent from 2011-2012 because of drought. Crop...

Cassava isn't afraid of a changing climate

For poor farmers in the tropics, there are few upsides to climate change. Cassava, however, is set to take off under higher temperatures – if pests and diseases don't drag it down.

Cass...

By LUIGI GUARINO | Director of Science and Programs

John Galsworthy quipped that headlines are generally twice the size of the events they refer to. So such examples of that artform as “Cost of Conserving Global Biodiversity Set...