The preservation of plant seeds as a genetic resource is becoming more and more important at a time when many crops are threatened by extinction or lower productive output due to climate change and the destruction of ecosystems through overdevelopment.
The shifting of ideal growing zones due to warming across the globe makes the creation of seed banks a cause for international attention, with changing growing conditions driving a need for what is, in effect, an ecological database.
The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, operates a gene bank business, which collects, preserves and distributes genetic agricultural resources both in Japan and abroad for research and educational purposes.