Genebank - Sustainable use of plant genetic resources
NordGen provides genetic material to facilitate sustainable food and feed production and other biobased solutions in the Nordic region’s changing climate. The best way to preserve genetic diversity is to use it and the Nordic seed collection is no exception.
Therefore, NordGen sends out thousands of seed samples annually to scientists, plant breeders, companies, museums, botanical gardens and home gardeners with an interest in old cultural plants. Seeds are primarily requested by Nordic and European countries.
The seed samples are mainly ordered by universities and research/breeding institutes while others interested in the material are seed saver organizations, museums, schools and municipalities for education or demonstration use.
Figure 3: Crop of requested accessions in 2022 (number of bags).
In addition to the distribution of seed samples for scientific purposes, the seed lab also handles the seed orders in NordGen’s online shop where the number of orders per year has reached over 1000 since 2020.
Webshop
As one of the ways to promote the sustainable use of plant genetic resources to the general public, NordGen has established an online shop where we distribute our surplus of seeds for a small admin fee. During springtime, hobby growers and home gardeners with an interest in older varieties of vegetables, flowers and cereals can order seed samples and mini tubers of potatoes from NordGen. In 2024 the website work with the online shop continued, for example a new sales website was launched, a solution that works in a much more stable way for users and administrators.
Figure 4: Number of orders in the online shop 2018-2024.
