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Gene Bank & Collections
Vanuatu's living treasure house: thousands of plants, gathered island by island, kept alive in the field at Saraoutou.
What we hold
The collections
Counts from the Centre's 2016 section pages.
Island by island
How the collections were gathered
- 1983 – 86First island surveys of local coconut populations[6]
- 1998 – 2000Second national coconut survey: 14 sites on 10 islands; 12 populations and 18 special variants brought into the field gene bank (ADB / COGENT)[8]
- 2016Five African yam accessions acquired from CePaCT/IITA by Marie Melteras — parents of later hybrids[10]
- 2020After TC Harold, lost yam and taro varieties recollected from relief shipments[11]
- 2021Germplasm collecting with villagers at Nuvi, East Epi[12]
Long-term trials & heritage
Science that takes decades
Like the world's oldest field experiments, Saraoutou's value grows with time.
Vanuatu Tall mass selection — one of the Pacific's longest-running coconut breeding lines.[6]
The coconut collection, 11 Tall and 13 Dwarf varieties, is called "the richest in the Pacific".[7]
20 Vanuatu Tall populations plus Vanuatu Red Dwarf; 60 living accessions in the international coconut database.[8]
Long-term coconut carbon and water flux studies at Saraoutou.[9]
Search our collections
Find an accession
Start with our gene bank catalogue of sourced populations and released varieties. Pacific and global germplasm can also be searched through regional and international portals.