Introduction continued...

The MSB and its partner seed banks are not mausoleums - the seed they contain remains alive for decades and, in many cases, hundreds of years. More importantly, that seed is being used now to provide a wide range of benefits to mankind, ranging from food and building materials for rural communities to disease-resistant crops for agriculture. The collections held in the MSB, and the knowledge we are deriving from them, gives us almost infinite options for their conservation and use. With future climate change scenarios and the ever-increasing impact of human activities, the MSBP intends to accelerate its activities to secure in safe storage 25% of the world's plant species by 2020.

Photo taken from the book "Seeds - Time Capsules of Life" by Rob Kesseler & Wolfgang Stuppy