🏦World Seed Banks

FAO estimates that there are over 1,750 ex situ seed banks worldwide, both international and local, that preserve over 7 million samples of seeds, cuttings, or genetic material. Below are 19 seed saving organizations working to promote seed diversity through seed banks, exchange networks, and educational programs selected by the Food Tank.

• ASEED Europe, Netherlands Established in 1991, ASEED Europe champions causes related to environmental sustainability and social justice. Through community-driven campaigns, they address biodiversity loss in agriculture, seed accessibility, and corporate influence in the food system. They also provide resources and education on climate change, trade, and food sovereignty.

• Australian PlantBank, Australia Located in New South Wales, this conservation hub stands as Australia's premier seed bank for native plants. With over 100 million seeds across 10,000 collections, it's a global beacon of biodiversity. They utilize techniques like cryostorage and tissue culture for various applications, including conservation and research. Visitors are welcomed for educational insights.

• Botanical Research Institute of Texas, United States Founded in 1987, BRIT dedicates itself to the importance of plants in preserving natural heritage. They run the Conservation Seed Laboratory and Seed Bank as a part of their larger Texas Plant Conservation Program. Joining hands with the Center of Plant Conservation in 2017, BRIT collaborates with Texas organizations to safeguard native plants.

• Cherokee Nation Seed Bank, United States This seed bank preserves plants intrinsic to Cherokee history and heritage. Managed by The Cherokee Nation Heirloom Garden and Native Plant Site, they offer community members seeds like heirloom corn and tobacco. They also provide guidance to ensure the plants' genetic continuity.

• Camino Verde, United States & Peru Camino Verde, a U.S. nonprofit also operating in Peru, has been conserving biodiversity by planting over 25,000 trees and establishing a Living Seed Bank with more than 400 tree species since 2007. Their nurseries now yield over 200,000 seedlings annually, and they collaborate with local farmers and indigenous groups to rehabilitate forests affected by agriculture, mining, and ranching.

• Hawai’i Public Seed Initiative, United States Initiated by The Kohala Center in 2010, this initiative emphasizes seed varieties attuned to Hawaii's unique environment. They provide education and foster seed leadership across various Hawaiian islands.

• Irish Seed Savers, Ireland Founded in County Carlow in 1991 and later relocating to Scarriff, this organization seeks to highlight the importance of Ireland's agricultural biodiversity. They host a public seed bank with over 600 non-commercially available varieties of heirloom and heritage seeds, including rare vegetables, soft fruit, flowers, grains, potatoes, and apple trees.

• International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia As a CGIAR research hub, CIAT advances agrobiodiversity in Africa, Asian, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Headquartered in Colombia, their genebank boasts the world's most extensive collections of beans, cassava, and tropical forages. They generously offer seed samples free of charge globally for research and educational purposes.

• Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, England Located in Wakehurst, they are at the forefront of conserving wild plant species on-site. Governed by the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, an extensive network involved in seed conservation in over 80 countries, it boasts a collection exceeding 92,500, representing more than 40,000 species.

• National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Perseveration (NLGRP), United States Located on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, they are home to one of the world’s largest plant and animal gene banks. NLGRP’s mission is to support U.S. agriculture in producing high-quality food, feed, and fiber by acquiring, evaluating, preserving, and distributing critical genetic resources. In its plant division, the laboratory manages more than 10,000 plant species in long-term storage and on fields, orchards, and nature reserves.

• Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance, United States Indigenous Seed Keeper Network is an initiative of NAFSA, an independent, non-profit initiative dedicated to preserving traditional Native American crops, promoting seed sovereignty and leveraging resources to support tribal food sovereignty projects

• Native Seeds/SEARCH, United States An independent non-profit organization that conserves nearly 2,000 varieties of arid-adapted crops indigenous to the Southwestern United States. Some. These varieties include traditional crops such as corn, beans, and squash used by the Apache, Havasupai, Hopi, Maricopa, Mayo, and many other tribes.

• Navdanya, India This network of seed keepers and organic producers spans 22 states, having established over 150 community seed banks in three decades. Navdanya has safeguarded over 4,000 rice varieties, conserving underutilized crops like millets, and trained over of 750,000 farmers in sustainable agriculture and seed sovereignty.

• SeedChange, Canada Formerly USC Canada, SeedChange is working to fight for farmers’ rights to fair wages, land, and seeds around the globe. Through partnerships with nonprofits, they support over 30,000 small-scale farmers to restore degraded lands, share seeds, and start businesses. SeedChange projects are rooted in a Seeds of Survival approach, which emphasizes the importance of local seeds and local knowledge. They support about 70 seed banks run by the communities in which they are located, and hundreds of home seed banks cared for by the farmers in their own homes. The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, a program of SeedChange, is building a movement for resilient seed systems across Canada by collaborating with farmers, seed producers, researchers, and more than 100 partners from civil society, government, and business.

• Seed Library Network, International This collaborative network promotes the establishment and interlinking of seed libraries globally, providing a plethora of resources to help anyone start a seed library, develop community gardens and more. They are operating in 48 U.S. states and 15 countries with over 600 seed libraries.

• Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway Known as the "Doomsday Vault," this seed bank is world’s largest seed bank designed to store duplicates of seed samples from the world's crop collections, safeguarding them against global catastrophes. It has the capacity to store 2.25 billion seeds, with over 4,000 plant species currently conserved within its chambers.

• The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, China Run by the Kunming Institute of Botany and includes a seed bank, DNA bank, microbial bank, animal germplasm bank, and seed biology research center. It has an extensive collection representing a significant portion of China's wild plant species, hosting over 80,000 seed samples from more than 10,000 species, making it the most extensive in Asia and second globally.

• The World Vegetable Center, Taiwan Established in 1971, the center focuses on vegetable research, network building, and education to enhance health and reduce poverty globally. With the world's largest collection of vegetable germplasm, it maintains over 61,000 accessions from 155 countries. Since its inception, the Center has provided over 600,000 seed samples to partners in more than 180 countries, resulting in the release of numerous new varieties, particularly in developing regions. It is a key contributor to Genesys, the global germplasm network.

• Vrihi, India Established by ecologist Dr. Debal Deb, Vrihi, which means "rice" in Sanskrit, has operated as an independent entity since 2000 and is Eastern India's most extensive folk rice seed bank, dedicated to the preservation and cultivation of native rice varieties through non-commercial seed exchanges.