The first batch of 100 million of the most important agricultural seeds were placed into the “doomsday repository” Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.

The vault is a backup of last resort, stocked with copies of different crops from national seed storage facilities. In cold isolation the seeds can keep for hundreds and thousands of years–sorghum alone can last for 20,000 years–effectively allowing agriculture to be restarted in the event of a global calamity, such as nuclear war or catastrophic climate change.

See Also Doomsday vault to avert world famine