The expansion of China's only seed bank for cold-region crops has been completed recently to raise its seed preservation capacity from 80,000 to 200,000 samples.
The crop germplasm bank, located in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang, has preserved more than 50,000 samples of various crops. Over 2,000 samples of wild soybeans, a second-class protected plant in China, have been stored in the bank, accounting for 25 percent of the nation's total.
After the expansion, three mid-term storehouses and two short-term ones were added to the crop germplasm bank, said Shen Zhongbao, director of the preservation and utilization center of crop germplasm resources in Heilongjiang. The transformation of resource management to informatization and digitalization has also been realized.
