New York: A new multilateral system for the fair and equitable sharing of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture has become operational, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has announced.

The Multilateral System provides farmers, plant breeders and scientists free of charge access to plant genetic materials of 64 crops, crops that together account for 80 per cent of all human consumption, and helps to share benefits derived from their commercial use.

Over the past seven months, the system has accelerated the exchange of genetic material, with more than 90,000 transfers of plant genetic material within the system, FAO said yesterday.

The System is part of the legally-binding International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture that entered into force in 2004 and has been ratified by 115 countries. Through the International Treaty, countries have agreed to make their genetic diversity and related information about the crops stored in their gene banks available to all who comply with the standarised benefit-sharing agreements.

Around 300 delegates are now meeting in Rome for the second session of the Governing Body of the Treaty. "World agriculture is under enormous pressure to produce more food in a sustainable way," said Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the Governing Body of the Treaty. "Agricultural production needs to be improved by developing food crops that can adapt to threats such as climate change, desertification, pests and diseases and at the same time meet the demand of a population that will grow from six billion people today to nine billion in 2050," he said. 

Agricultural biodiversity, which is the basis for food production, is in sharp decline due to the effects of modernisation, changes in diets and increasing population density. It is estimated that about three-quarters of the genetic diversity found in agricultural crops have been lost over the last century, and this genetic erosion continues, FAO said.

Today, only 150 crops feed most of the world's population, and just 12 crops provide 80 per cent of dietary energy from plants, with rice, wheat, maize, and potato alone accounting for almost 60 per cent.

The System gives scientific institutions, farmers, and private sector plant breeders the opportunity to work with the materials stored in gene banks or even crops growing in fields. By facilitating research, innovation and exchange of information without restrictions, this reduces the costly and time consuming procedures for breeders, while recognising for the first time farmers' rights, FAO said.

The world's most important gene bank collections, more than 600,000 samples, held by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), have been included in the system, together with the Mutant Germplasm Repository of the FAO/IAEA Joint Division in Vienna and other
collections.

No country is sufficient in crop diversity, FAO says, adding that only the sharing of plant genetic material from different regions and countries will enable the world to explore the unknown characteristics and the future potential of plant genetic resources.

Source : PTI