AU houses NordGen's basic seed stock as part of the policy support
NordGen ensures the conservation and sustainable use of the Nordic genetic resources in plants, livestock, and forests of relevance and utility for food and agriculture. The Nordic cooperation between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden is established and financed through the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Seeds of previously grown varieties of agricultural and horticultural crops as well as their wild relatives are preserved in NordGen. The gene bank contains 33,000 seed samples, originating from ca. 5,000 different species. NordGen's seed collection is divided into three locations: The active seed storage is located at the headquarters in Alnarp in Sweden, and there are two backup/basic seed stocks in Svalbard and Denmark, respectively. The Danish basic seed stock has been located at AU-Årslev since 2007, but with the Department of Foods relocation there was a need to relocate the basic stock as well.
After explorations and discussions between the National Board of Agriculture, NordGen, and AU during 2019, it was decided that the 43 freezers at Årslev should be replaced with a walk-in freezer at Flakkebjerg. The intention is to exploit the synergy between NordGen's activities and AU-Flakkebjerg's seed activities. Placement of NordGen's basic seed storage at AU-Flakkebjerg enables increased visibility in relation to the center's visitors with an interest in seed research: foreign researchers, students, companies, advisors, and in general AU-Flakkebjerg have close contacts in the local area. In addition, the TystofteFonden is located approx. 12 km southwest of AU-Flakkebjerg. TystofteFonden conducts variety testing and certification of seeds and seed lots.
The plant genetic resources of agriculture can contain traits that can improve crops for future needs. Through research and breeding, preserved properties of agricultural plant genetic resources can be transferred to new varieties. The diversity of different plant species can become a resource in meeting future challenges and societal interests. It may require adaptation of plants to changing climatic conditions, environmental considerations, future needs of alternative sources of protein for human and animal nutrition, and demand for variation and new qualities in both food and feed plants. Furthermore, resources also have an impact on our shared cultural history.
AGRO researchers are collaborating with NordGen and plant breeders to find new resistance genes in cereals; natural dyes in carrot etc. Furthermore, AGRO propagates seeds of some of the difficult cross-pollinating species when the seeds in the gene bank are either losing their germination capacity or when only a few seeds remain in a given seed sample.
An important part of the conservation of plant genetic resources is that they are used. NordGen delivers smaller seed samples to breeders, researchers, students, and to individuals. For this purpose, it is important that the associated documentation is easily accessible through well-functioning IT systems. In connection with the transfer from Årslev to Flakkebjerg, NordGen is in the process of transferring information on the seed samples to a new database system used by other international gene banks.