“Crops are resources that are renewable as long as you can conserve them,” Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust told IRIN from Rome. “In this sense, seed and gene banks are the libraries of life.”

Gene and seed banks, by storing food varieties, prepare the world for food crises by acting as a “savings account”. Just as one saves money for emergencies, scientists are saving seeds in case certain crops die out or are destroyed.

These stockpiles can be used to feed a growing population, which the UN predicts will balloon from seven billion to nine billion by 2050.

Scientists also hope to use genetic features of these stored seeds to create crops that can adapt to various weather conditions.