Horsham SmartFarm showcased its Australian Grains Genebank to international visitors recently, including International Crop Trust head Stefan Schmitz.

The gene bank is one of 1750 worldwide that conserves and makes available plant material to assist in developing more resilient and productive crops.

Dr Schmitz said he was most impressed by the facility.

“The gene bank in Horsham is excellent,” he said.

“When looking at how many seeds from those gene banks, those genetic resources, are distributed every year to breeding companies, to researchers, to find their way from there to the farmers on the ground, you can imagine how important that is. 

“The gene bank in Horsham alone is in constant contact with all the other gene banks around the world. 

“There is a constant exchange of plant genetic resources to make sure that researchers and breeders are constantly able to find new genetic traits for better varieties that are better adapted to climate change, to higher temperature, to new pests and diseases, come up with varieties that are more resource efficient, or that have a higher nutritional value and the like.”

Dr Schmitz said a green revolution was needed to produce better, and more food, to overcome world hunger.

“I think we need another green sustainability revolution that enables us to produce more and better food and food for all without exploiting the planet,” he said.

“To stay within the limits of the planet, make agriculture sustainable, and this is possible if we all are aware of the great treasure trove of crop diversity, of genetic diversity. 

“Using this as a starting point for modern breeding, for repatriation, for all kinds of agronomic innovation to make sure that we have a safe future with more sustainable, better food systems. 

“It is possible, but we need a prerequisite for all of that, we need to conserve the old varieties and use them as raw material for the future, for better varieties. That, I think, is a crucial point.”

Dr Schmitz said it was important gene banks worldwide were well-maintained and functioning. 

“In a country like Australia, this is no problem, however gene banks in Africa, in Southeast Asia and Latin America are in a desperate state,” he said.

“That is where the work of the crop trust comes in. We support them in upgrading the gene banks, in trading, in building modern information systems and so on.”

Dr Schmitz said the crop trust had worked with other international organisations to ensure Ukraine’s gene bank was protected.

“We helped Ukrainian colleagues to safely duplicate all their seeds they have conserved, send those safety duplicates outside the country and also relocate the gene bank as such from the east part of Ukraine to the far west, where it’s regarded to be much safer,” he said.

“Global co-operation is more important than ever before; genetic resources are spread around the world. 

“Agriculture started many years ago in many parts of the world. There is not one, except for the macadamia, not one crop that originated from Australia. We are all absolutely interdependent on food.”

Following the Horsham visit, Dr Schmitz travelled with genebank research leader and plant genetic resources leader Dr Sally Norton to Canberra to be part of panel discussion ‘Crop Diversity: A lifeline for resilience, peace, nutrition and food security’ with CSIRO scientist Dr Tony Fischer.

The entire April 30, 2025 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire April 30, 2025 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!