The Solution to Future Food Crisis is 'Wild Seeds', Korea and Europe Join Hands

Korea and the European Union join hands to address the future food crisis.

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 2nd that the project titled “Asia-Europe Crop Wild Relatives Conservation and Utilization Cooperation Network” (hereinafter referred to as the Cooperation Project), submitted by the Korea National Arboretum Management Institute (hereinafter referred to as KNA), has been finally selected for the Korea-Europe Cooperation Promotion Project.

The project submitted by KNA was the only one selected in the agriculture and forestry sector among the 11 projects in the entire Korea-Europe Cooperation Promotion Project.

According to the selection results, KNA will establish a cooperative research foundation on forest crop wild relatives with Europe by September next year, centered on the National Baekdudaegan Arboretum under its jurisdiction.

Crop wild relatives are wild plants closest to crops such as Dolkong (soybean) and Dumebuchu (onion), known for their excellent adaptability to extreme environments and high genetic diversity, attracting attention for their important role in improving future food crops to respond to the climate crisis.

After the project completion, KNA will also proceed with the procedures to participate in the Horizon Europe program. If the cooperation project is finally selected for the Horizon Europe program, it will become the first domestic forestry project to receive research funding directly from Europe.

The Horizon Europe program supports research funding in science and technological innovation fields by investing 95.5 billion euros (approximately 130 trillion KRW) from 2021 to 2027.

Korea joined as an associate member in March, becoming the third non-European country after New Zealand and Canada, and the first in Asia.

The Korea Forest Service expects that the selection of KNA’s project will provide an opportunity to seek joint solidarity between the Baekdudaegan Seed Vault in Korea and the Svalbard Seed Vault in Norway through future joint research and international cooperation between Korea and Europe.

These seed vaults are storage facilities established to permanently preserve seeds of wild plants in preparation for climate change and natural disasters, and are installed only in Korea and Norway worldwide.

Previously, the Korea Forest Service has been conducting research since 2021 to find solutions to the food crisis caused by climate change through forest wild seeds.

Lim Sang-seop, Administrator of the Korea Forest Service, said, “The Korea-Europe cooperation project will serve as a catalyst to expand research in the forestry sector, including responses to the climate crisis,” adding, “The Korea Forest Service will strive to globalize Korea’s excellent forest science and technology to solve international problems and strengthen industrial competitiveness.”