Seed bank
Also called: Seed banks · Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
A seed bank is a place that stores seeds so that plant varieties are not lost. The seeds are dried and kept cold, which slows down their life processes and keeps them alive for many years. Each stored seed carries the genetic diversity (the variety of genes) of its plant. That variety helps breeders grow new crop types, lets people restore damaged land and supports research. A seed bank is a form of ex situ conservation, which means protecting a species outside its natural home. It also acts as a backup in case a plant disappears from farms or forests. Seed banks can be large national facilities or small community stores run by farmers.
Example
The National Gene Bank at NBPGR in New Delhi stores seeds of crops and their wild relatives for all of India. At the village level, Navdanya, started by Vandana Shiva in 1987, runs community seed banks that save native farm seeds. A Ministry of Tribal Affairs and CSIR-NBRI project launched in 2026 is setting up 16 community seed banks, one in each of 16 tribal hotspots.
Don't confuse with
- In situ conservation: this protects plants where they naturally grow, for example in national parks or sacred groves. A seed bank keeps seeds away from that natural home.
- Gene bank: this is a wider term. A gene bank can also store pollen, tissues or DNA, not just seeds. So every seed bank is a kind of gene bank, but not every gene bank is a seed bank.