From the recent New York Times feature on the ICARDA genebank:
Icarda’s entire collection houses seeds that have sustained the people of the Middle East for centuries, including some 14,700 varieties of bread wheat, 32,000 varieties of barley, and nearly 16,000 varieties of chickpea, the key component of falafel. The Lebanon seed bank houses about 39,000 accessions, and Morocco, another 32,000. Most of it is backed up in Svalbard.
You can read my own take right here on the blog. Here’s a shot of the new shadehouses I took during a visit a few months ago.
And do explore the ICARDA collection on Genesys.
