The North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station, a U.S. Department of Agriculture unit affiliated with Iowa State and located in Ames, sent approximately 800 seeds to Norway this month to help stock a new facility that will store genetic information of plants from around the world.

On Tuesday, Norway is opening an international storage facility, called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which will store a genetically diverse selection of plant material that can be used to avert potential crises such as famine and crop failure.

Larry Lockhart, program manager at NCRPIS, said the famous Irish potato famine is one example of a crisis caused by a lack of genetic diversity among Irish crops.

The 800 seeds sent to Norway are only a tiny portion of the NCRPIS’ collection.

Lockhart said the Ames facility contains close to 20,000 different varieties of corn.

The NCRPIS facility also houses genetic material sunflower, flax, millets, carrot and sweet clover, according to an informational booklet for NCRPIS.

Mark Widrlechner, horticulturist at NCRPIS, said there are gene banks like this one all around the world and that many gene banks have backup facilities with extra copies of the same genetic material.

The primary backup location for the Ames vault is in Fort Collins, Colo.

Lockhart said some countries don’t have backup locations like the one located in Fort Collins, which is why it’s important that Norway is opening a global vault.

“Having a place to back up everybody is a good thing,” Widrlechner said.