Ankara to host third-largest seed gene bank

The world's third-largest seed gene bank is to be established in Turkey. Construction on the seed bank will be launched with a ceremony in Ankara tomorrow by Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Mehdi Eker. "We need to assess the current situation and protect our biological diversity and genetic resources," said the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Ministry in a statement. "There are about 10,000 plant species and nearly 3,000 endemic plant species in Turkey. Turkey is considered a center for finding genes of a number of plant species of great importance for biological research. Thus, we have decided to establish a seed gene bank in Turkey. The bank will contain genes from 250,000 plant species." The international community has set up seed banks, frequently known as gene banks, in response to the loss of biodiversity. There are now 1,300 banks worldwide containing around 6 million acquisitions. The world's largest seed bank, managed by the US Department of Agriculture, holds more than 460,000 seed samples and has the capacity to store up to 1 million seeds.