Sargent Donates Irish Seeds To Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The Irish deposit consists of some of the most important seeds in the reference collections of Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

Almost two-thirds of a million seeds, representing unique accessions of Ireland's forage grasses, potatoes, wheat, oats and barley collections will be deposited at Svalbard as part of Ireland's international commitment to maintain a broad genetic resource base for future needs.

Sargent stated that the event marking the deposit of Irish seed was an opportunity to: "acknowledge the importance of the recently opened Global Seed Vault, and also to celebrate the skill, dedication and hard work of the plant breeders in Ireland over our recent history as well as seed diversity conservationists".