165 000 food crop varieties to be saved by $ 37.5 Million dollar grant

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Government of Norway have donated $ 30 million and $ 7.5 million respectively to the UN Foundation and the Global Crop Diversity Trust to help preserve 165,000 varieties of 21 of the world’s most critical food crops.


The project will save many rare and endangered varieties of indigenous food crops by renovating gene banks and seed banks in developing and under developed countries.

The Government of Norway too will provide space on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen for the seed banks to be set up.


A major global plant database will pool together the information contained in hundreds of plant gene banks.

Source: http://philanthropy.com/premium/articles/v18/i13/13001001.htm>

You can find out more about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalDevelopment/Agriculture/

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