I was a bit disappointed. It was just a battered old brown cardboard box sealed with tape, pulled from a high shelf in a refrigerated seed bank in Syria. But this, I was assured, was the famed "black box"-the genetic holy grail, the ark of the lost seeds, the future agricultural prosperity of Iraq. The box was put together in 1996 in the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib. Known mainly for its notorious prison, Abu Ghraib was once the home of Iraq's main seed bank and plant breeding programme. It was here that plant scientists, fearing for the future of their collection, packed up more than 1000 vital seed varieties - everything from ancient wheats to chickpeas, lentils and fruits - and shipped them off to Aleppo for safe keeping. It was lucky the scientists acted as they did. In the chaos that followed the US-led invasion in 2003, the seed bank was destroyed and its equipment looted. "The black box is a genetic time capsule containing Iraq's agricultural heritage," says William Erskine, director of research at the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, where the box has been lodged. When the time is right, its contents will form the basis for plant breeding to restore Iraqi agriculture and end the country's reliance on food aid. The box also has a global importance, as among the seeds are varieties of crops with inbuilt resistance to extreme heat, drought and salinity. These could be invaluable for plant breeding programmes worldwide in the coming century, says Adel El-Beltagy, director-general of ICARDA.
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