As a defense against food instability and climate change, experts in Costa Rica’s tropical mountains guard a treasure trove of seeds that have been gathered over many years.
At the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) close to the town of Turrialba, around 6,200 samples from 125 species of squash, chilli, tomato, and other edible plants are kept.
The seeds can be stored for up to 40 years at minus 20 degrees Celsius and be used for research, genetic engineering to create plants that are resistant to pests, illnesses, and changing weather, or to replace extinct species.
The bank “is a resource we have for use now or in the future,” plant geneticist William Solano told AFP at the location around 60 kilometers east of the city San Jose.
He claimed that although it contains seeds from 57 nations, 90% of them are from the Central American region and were either gathered from marketplaces, farms, or wild plants.
The second-largest collection of seeds from the squash family may be found in the CATIE stockpile, which is organized on shelves in thousands of tiny silver envelopes.
According to the center, many of the seeds are unavailable in banks in other parts of the world.
