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‘Doomsday vault’ stores its first seeds

A top-secret repository on the island of Svalbard, built to preserve samples of nearly all the world's seed crops deep in an Arctic mountain, was officially opened on Tuesday, the Guardian reported.

The seed bank, dubbed the "doomsday vault" by some, aims to protect the crops in case of a global catastrophe. "It is the last line of defence against the extinction of our agricultural diversity," Cary Fowler, the executive director of the Global Diversity Crop Trust, was quoted as saying
 
Maintaining crop diversity is essential to prevent disease in plants and protect our food supply, Fowler was quoted saying, adding that global warming poses a new, unparalleled threat to our agricultural system.

The first 250,000 samples will be placed in the vault on Tuesday, the report said.

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