International Storage System Of Food For Mankind

Ever heard of insurances? You must have, as there are many individual insurance claims such as life, health, personal and much more. But have you ever come across insurance of humanity against food shortage? Yes, there is a place in Norway known as Svalbard Global Seed Vault or better known as “Humanity’s last stand against Food Shortage”. Sounds like “X-Men: The Last Stand” The third installment in the X-Men movie franchise. The first withdrawal from the vault is known to have occurred during the Syrian civil war in which many people were left homeless and did not have anything to eat. Apart from that It has a lovely acronym “DSV” famously known as Doomsday Seed Vault where “Doomsday” stands for the “Final day”.

Though Svalbard falls in the Norwegian plains but it is very close to the Arctic pole where the maximum temperatures do not exceed -180C. It is also the farthest north a person can fly on a scheduled flight but is not accessible due to its remote location.

Established and opened in 2008 the main purpose of the seed vault is to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. The total cost of the vault is estimated to be around 45 Million Norwegian Kroner or 9 Million US Dollars. It is 120 m long tunnel which is dug deep inside a sandstone mountain at Svalbard, Norway.

The vault has a wide range and varieties of seeds ranging from African and Asian food staples like Wheat, Maize, Rice to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley and potato.