Crop Trust presents inaugural Legacy Awards
As part of the 10th anniversary of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the Crop Trust recognised seven of the world’s “gatekeepers” of crop diversity by presented them with the inaugural Legacy Awards. Several of the award recipients are retiring managers at the vitally important CGIAR genebanks, which conserve and share hundreds of thousands of seeds of food and forage crops.
The award ceremony, which took place in Svalbard, Norway on 25 February 2018 coincided with the latest shipments of more than 70,000 seeds to iconic Seed Vault. These will take the total number of seed samples deposited there over the last decade to more than one million. Deposits are made by genebanks from all over the world, to back up their own collections safely and securely.
Several of the Crop Trust Legacy Award recipients are retiring managers at the vitally important genebanks of CGIAR, which conserve and share hundreds of thousands of seeds of food and forage crops. Duplicates of seeds from CGIAR genebanks make up the majority of varieties currently backed up in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
The Crop Trust Legacy Award recipients are:
- Daniel Debouck – International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia
- Jean Hanson – International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Ethiopia
- Ahmed Amri – International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Morocco
- Hari D Upadhyaya – International Center for Research in the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), India
- Dave Ellis – International Potato Center (CIP), Peru
- Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton – International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Philippines
- Cary Fowler – one of the visionaries of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and a special advisor to the Crop Trust
“They understand – and have helped thousands of others learn about – the deep connection between seeds, our agricultural history, and our future,” said Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. “Without the passion and dedication of these scientists the world would be a far less rich, far less diverse place.”