UN FAO shifts 39k Ukrainian plant genetic samples

摘要

The UN FAO has relocated a collection of 39,000 "unique" plant genetic samples from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv amid the country’s ongoing invasion by Russia. The UN body observes that the assortment included samples not available at any other seed bank, adding that the exercise was undertaken in association with the EU. The migration involved a "complex operation" that saw the collection transported to a secure Ukrainian facility some 1,000 km away. It was necessitated by damages to the Kharkiv National Gene Bank on account of Russian shelling, says the FAO, revealing that the offensive has already destroyed some of the working seed collections at field research stations.