Word: seeds
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...logistics and intelligence were pivotal, though Déby's tactical prowess and rifts among the rebels helped too. Neither of the two main rebel chiefs, Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri, wants the other to become President. The French weapons now pouring into Chad on Libyan aircraft will not seed stability. Many will flow into the armory of Déby's Darfurian ally Ibrahim Khalil, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement, encouraging him to escalate his war in Darfur...
...Maxim that's as true for farming as it is for your home PC: always back up your data. In agriculture, data take the form of seeds, and farmers have been saving seed varieties for millenniums. If disaster struck and an entire crop were lost, a cache of seeds could mean the difference between survival and starvation...
...still save seeds today, mostly in national seed banks that often specialize in native crops: pistachios in Iran, rice in the Philippines. When a disaster like the Irish potato blight of the 1840s hits, scientists can search the seed bank for an old variety that might prove resistant. Since pests and pathogens are constantly evolving, a well-stocked seed bank "is our best line of defense," says Geoff Hawtin, director-general of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia...
...that defense is in peril. Often, the seed banks with the richest collections are located in unstable countries that don't take care of them. When Afghanistan's seed bank was looted during the Taliban's rule, rare varieties of walnuts, cherries and apricots were lost. Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an agricultural NGO, estimates that as many as half the seed banks in the developing world may be at risk...
...ensure that an agricultural doomsday never comes, Fowler and his colleagues have organized the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, an international seed bank built into a mountain on a Norwegian island in the Arctic. A Fort Knox for seeds, the vault will be a backup for the backups and will eventually be expanded to include genetic samples of every crop on the planet. The first shipments, from more than 36 African nations, arrived at the end of January, and there will be room for as many as 4.5 million samples once the facility opens Feb. 26. The specimens will be kept...