The first ever global agreement on agricultural biodiversity: The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture The Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1591. Skokloster Castle, Sweden
The Treaty was adopted by the FAO Conference on 3 November 2001 and will enter into force in June 2004
What is agricultural biodiversity??
The interlinkages between agro-biodiversity: Genetic Diversity Cultural Diversity Ecological Diversity
The Treaty deals with plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: What is special about genetic resources for food and agriculture? What is the value of these agricultural plant species? What is the international community doing?
For 10,000 years, farming communities all over the world have developed agricultural genetic resources Agriculture began 10,000 years ago, with the Neolithic revolution in centres of origin, for example: The Near East: barley and wheat South-East Asia: rice The Andes: the potato Africa: millet and sorghum, and in Meso-America: maize We are still coasting on the Neolithic
The centres of diversity of some major plants
Farmers created crops Farmers altered the original wild plants The created diversity by adapting crops to new ecosystems and new human needs They also found new crops: rye is a weed taken north, where it proved more productive than the cereals
Many crops cannot survive in nature: maize, with its very tight ears, cannot seed itself. Compared to the original wild teocinte, maize is almost unrecognisable teocinte maize
Agriculture has always been based on access and exchange, not on exclusivity People have always swapped their crops and landraces Farmers exchange seeds and breed exotic material into their crops, in order to avoid productivity declines
Crops are spread all over the world, and Food security depends overwhelmingly on a few crops
and on the diversity within those crops
Diversity is the main strategy of small farmers: 2/3 of the world poor live in rural areas 1400 million people depend on resource-poor farming systems Cannot afford expensive external inputs Plant genetic diversity is crucial for them, to manage rysk, adapt to marginal environments, diversify nutrition,...
Diversity for breeders to produce new varieties 11 landraces contributed to the malting barley genepool One alfalfa landrace from Iran in 1940 was used to introduced resistance to stem nematodes A wheat wild relative, Tr. Polonicum contributed to low fertilizer qualities of some durum wheat varieties
Diversity to avoid Genetic Vulnerability: it happens when a crop is uniformly susceptible to a pest, pathogen or environmental hazard First potatos grown in Europe were based on two to four original varieties introduced from South America The1830s Irish potato famine was because limited diversity had come with Europe s first potatoes Only when resistances were found in South America could the European potato recover
So what is special about agricultural genetic resources? Most of the world s genetic diversity lies in the tropical and semi-tropical countries, not in the industrial north Countries and regions all depend for their food and agriculture on crops that originated elsewhere Farmers maintain genetic diversity within farming systems, this diversity suffers erosion when farming systems suffer perturbations An alternative strategy is ex situ conservation To feed the world, we must continue to draw on all these resources
These are the challenges to which the International Treaty on Plant Genetic resources for Food and Agriculture - a new, binding international instrument -
The scope of the Treaty is all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture J. T. Esquinas J.T.Esquinas J. T. Esquinas J. T. Esquinas
What are the Treaty s objectives? The conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture The fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security
General provisions of the Treaty Article 5: Conservation, Exploration, Collection, Characterization, Evaluation and Documentation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Article 6: Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in National Policies (Art. 7) In implementing the Treaty countries may incorporate measures for conservation and sustainable use in their national policies on agriculture, rural development and international cooperation
Article 9: Farmers Rights Recognition of the enormous contribution that farmers and their communities have made and continue to make to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources. Farmers Rights include the protection of traditional knowledge and the right to participate equitably in benefitsharing and in national decision-making about plant genetic resources. Governments are responsible for realizing these rights. J.T. Esquinas
The Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing The Treaty establishes a multilateral system, both to facilitate access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and to share, in a fair and equitable way, the benefits arising from the utilization of these resources. This applies to a list of crops established according to criteria of food security and interdependence
Benefit-sharing includes Facilitated access itself constitutes a major benefit Exchange of information Access to and transfer of technology Capacity-building The sharing of monetary and other benefits of commercialization
A funding strategy for the implementation of this Treaty priority will be given to the implementation of agreed plans and programmes for farmers in developing countries, especially in least developed countries, [ ] who conserve and sustainably utilize plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. (Art. 18.5)
The Status of the International Treaty: - The Treaty will come into force on 29 June, after ratification of more than 40 states; - As at 31 March 2004, 48 countries plus the European Community have ratified it, and 77 states had signed the Treaty; - The Parlamento and Senado of Italy have already ratified the International Treaty.
The theme of the World Food Day 2004 is Biodiversity for Food Security We hope you will all participate! Thank you!!!!