In 2012, the President of the country, esteemed Emomali Rahmon, familiarized himself with the activities of the National Center for Genetic Resources of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences. The scientists and specialists of the Center, having established fruitful cooperation with their foreign colleagues and agricultural farms of the country, collect, revive, and preserve seeds of all ancient, nearly extinct varieties of agricultural crops for future decades and centuries. In particular, they have revived seeds of 1,022 varieties of wheat and 624 rare local varieties of barley and sent them for century-long storage to a special vault in Norway. Seeds of more than 2,500 varieties and samples of agricultural crops are also stored in a special repository in the city of Saint Petersburg of the Russian Federation, all of which are the property of Tajikistan. The repository of the National Center for Genetic Resources of the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences is currently capable of storing rare seeds for up to 50 years in special freezers maintaining a temperature of minus 18 degrees.
