Warwick Crop Centre at the University of Warwick has won a five year contract from Defra to continue to host the UK Vegetable Genebank at the University’s Wellesbourne Campus.

The Genebank is an internationally significant collection of almost 14,000 seed samples from different vegetable crops including carrot, onion, lettuce cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli varieties, as well as their closely related wild relatives.

The collection represents the genetic diversity in the genepool of each crop, and is a vital resource for researchers and plant breeders across the world. Experts believe that securing genetically diverse resources, and preventing loss of diversity in global agriculture, which has nosedived since the middle of last century, are key to ensuring food security in the face of climate change.

In March, the European Parliament voted to reject proposed reforms to EU seed law. The controversial proposals submitted by the EU Commission, had, according to European Green MEPs opposing the package, been drawn up under concerted lobbying pressure for the benefit of a few seed houses and as a result failed to protect farmers' rights, essential agricultural biodiversity and an equitable organisation of the seed market. 

Seeds in the Warwick bank are kept in dedicated storage facilities under long term storage conditions of -20⁰C and low moisture content to maximise their lifespan. Under these conditions seed can be kept for decades, if not longer.

Seed samples in the Genebank, either from wild relatives, traditional varieties developed by farmers or old commercial varieties may be sources of important traits not present in the current commercial varieties grown today. These traits, such as new sources of pest and disease resistance, are required to contribute to sustainable food production in the face of environmental change.

"Vegetables are an important component of a healthy diet and the seed resources within the Genebank will support the development of new and improved varieties in the future", said Dr Charlotte Allender who leads the Vegetable Genebank project.

Warwick will continue to conserve and manage the collections whilst exploring new opportunities to support their utilisation by breeders and researchers. A series of demonstration field trials are planned to showcase the diversity within particular crops groups

"The potential benefits of recent developments in DNA sequencing technologies to both collection management and use will also be explored during the course of the project," commented Dr. Allender. "We will be continuing and expanding our dialogue with users of the collections, and carrying out activities to raise awareness of the seed resources and further stimulate their use."