Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Russia's Pavlovsk Experimental Station houses one of
the oldest seed and plant collections in the world.
But in August a court agreed to let the Russian
Housing Development Foundation take control of the
land. The Russian government established the
foundation in two thousand eight. The foundation
wants to build housing on the land near Saint
Petersburg that the collection now occupies. Russian
officials could still decide to rescue the station.
If not, it could be gone within months. The station
would not be at all easy to move, even if enough
land could be found quickly. Most of the collection
grows in the ground. Agricultural specialists say
trying to transplant it would take years. The
Pavlovsk Experimental Station is part of the N.I.
Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. The institute
already existed as a research center when plant
scientist Nikolai Vavilov reorganized it in the
nineteen twenties. The institute was named in his
honor in nineteen thirty. The experimental station
includes plants that are not found in any other seed
bank. It also has Europe's largest field bank for
fruits and berries. More than one hundred varieties
each of raspberries and gooseberries grow on its
many hectares.The Global Crop Diversity Trust has
been working to save the collection since it first
appeared threatened. The trust, a food security
group, has been urging people to appeal to Russian
officials.An order from President Dmitri Medvedev or
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could stop the housing
development. President Medvedev has started an
investigation. The collection has been threatened
before. During World War Two, German troops
surrounded Saint Petersburg, then called Leningrad.
Scientists protected the seeds and plants even as
people starved. The Pavlovsk Experimental Station is
one of an estimated one thousand four hundred seed
and plant preservation centers worldwide.Some have
been damaged or destroyed by war, natural disasters
and theft. In two thousand eight Norway opened a
so-called doomsday vault designed to be secure from
any threat -- even an asteroid strike. The Svalbard
Global Seed Vault is in the side of a mountain. The
huge, icy space holds extra copies of seeds from
other seed banks. In February, it received its
half-millionth seed variety to keep safe. And that's
the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can
read and listen to our programs and get podcasts at
voaspecialenglish.com.
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