One of the world’s largest, the National Gene Bank named after V.Ya. Yuriev National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, located in Kharkiv, was destroyed during the war.

This was announced by the leading researcher of the institute Sergey Avramenko on his YouTube channel.

Preservation and effective use of plant genetic diversity to ensure food, economic, environmental, social security and development is one of the most pressing problems of mankind.

The bank kept more than 160 thousand varieties of plant seeds, and hybrids of agricultural crops worldwide.

“These seeds were stored in special storage facilities so that future generations could restore them,” [said] Sergey Avramenko.

He also stressed that seed samples were ordered by specialists from different countries, including Russia, to carry out selection work on a particular crop that would be adapted to a specific area.

The specialist added that there are those that no longer exist in Europe and the world among the destroyed samples.

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