🆕🧬GBioS is proud to announce that CalaviGen, the Genebank of the University of Abomey-Calavi, is one of the 15 genebanks that have shipped seeds to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This marks a significant contribution to the preservation of crop diversity, which is essential for enhancing our current agricultural and food systems and for coping with unanticipated shocks.
For its first deposit, CalaviGen has backed up nearly 16% of its held diversity, amounting to a total of 2,701 accessions of 27 different species from three key commodity groups: vegetables, cereals, and legumes. These crops are crucial for food and nutrition security in Benin.
🌾Among the accessions, CalaviGen shipped the Gboman eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon L.) accession which is notable for being the latest flowering accession in their Gboman germplasm. Late flowering is an advantageous trait, as it is positively correlated with leaf biomass accumulation—the main target product in Benin—and with leaf nutrient content, both of which are important for improving nutrition and food security for farmers.
Another noteworthy accession is Doyi (Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal and Baudet), which is the highest yielding and most stable accession. The team strongly recommends this for any production environment in Benin.
🎤As Prof. Enoch Gbenato Achigan-Dako, Director of GBioS, stated, «If there is a place in the world where we are sure our germplasm can be secured forever, then that place is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It is an honour to contribute to the maintenance of a part of the World heritage for the next generation.»
🤝🌍For the record, this deposit was made possible by the Biodiversity for Opportunities, Livelihoods and Development (BOLD) project, funded by the Norwegian Government to enhance food and nutrition security worldwide through the conservation and use of crop diversity.
#Genebank #Phytogeneticresources #CalaviGen
