Tunnel storing seeds of the world

Last week, some seeds, including mold-resistant beans, German tomatoes and wild strawberries growing on the slopes of a volcano in Russia were added to the vault in the mountain of Norway, bringing the total number of seeds type in stock up to 500,000.

The Svalbard island cellar officially went into operation in February 2008 to protect the world's crops from natural disasters and human ear. The icy land on the island plus an additional cooling system makes the storage temperature constant at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

'Achieving 500,000 numbers is both happy and worrying because the cellar has become the gold standard for diversity but also when our agricultural sector is really on the blade , ' Cary Fowler, CEO of the Fund. Diverse global crops, say. This fund, along with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Center for Genetic Resources in Sweden, is managing the 'end of the world' seed store.

The world's seed treasure is strictly protected with four layers of doors, in which digital keys are encrypted for access rights.