The Seed Ark held the second seed depositing ceremony with a total of 1.29 million samples

On May 28, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in northern Norway held its second seed deposit ceremony this year, adding more than 20,000 samples from 15 institutions in Benin, Armenia, Indonesia and other countries, bringing the total number of seed samples in the vault to 1.29 million.

Xinhua News Agency reported that Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food Pollesta said at the ceremony that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is an important facility to ensure global plant seed diversity and food security. He welcomes more institutions to deposit seed samples in the vault.

Opened in February 2008, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located under the Arctic permafrost in Svalbard, Norway, and houses plant seed samples from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. The seed bank was funded by the Norwegian government and operated by partners including the Global Crop Diversification Fund, based in Bonn, Germany, and the Nordic Genetic Resources Centre, based in Alnap, Sweden.

Designed to hold 4.5 million seed samples, the vault has stored only nearly 29 percent of its designed capacity. The vault provides secure storage services and the seed samples remain in the possession of the depository institution.

In 2015, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas requested a seed sample from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the first time an institution has taken a seed sample since the vault was established.