Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68EUROPEAN-SEED.COM I EUROPEAN SEED I 19 l a nt genet ic resou rces a re t he foundation of plant breeding and a reservoir of genetic diversity. All the important work of breeders to develop new varieties that respond to today’s needs builds on plant genetic resources and the ability of breeders to access them. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (the Treaty) helps to conserve and provide facilitated access to key material we need to improve breeding pools and create new varieties, in a way that is customized for the needs of the agricultural sector. But conserving the biodiversity of plants cultivated for food and agriculture is not the same as protecting other plant and animal species given that crops have two main distinctive features: firstly, there is human intervention in their development, and secondly, they are important for our subsistence. BY: SHAKEEL BHATTI Crop biodiversity is represented by a unique genetic pool that grew over the millennia out of human intervention, as well as natural selection, with farmers mixing the genes of different varieties and even species to create new, more robust ones. Most of those varieties and species are kept from extinction by human interaction. In other words, when it comes to the genetic resources of plants used for food and agriculture, it really is a case of ‘use it or lose it’. We have already lost a great deal. Over the millennia, humans have relied on 10,000 plant species for food. So much of that diversity has now gone that there are currently just 150 crops under cultivation. Four of those crops – rice, wheat, maize and potatoes – provide around 60 per cent of our food needs. One objective of the Treaty is to protect crop biodiversity for human development and its preamble calls for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), for sustainable agriculture and food security. The importance it attaches to development is further emphasized by the fact that the Treaty has decided to adopt it as the theme for the seventh session of its Governing Body. Many countries have now adopted the benefit-sharing concept through the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the CBD, which came into force in October 2014 as a way of encouraging countries to preserve biodiversity and to develop an economy that is more sustainable and in which the value of natural resources will be acknowledged. USE IT OR LOSE IT THE INTERNATIONAL TREATY PROVIDES ACCESS TO KEY PLANT BREEDING MATERIAL. Photo courtesy FAO