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58 SEEDWORLD.COM OCTOBER 2015 To date van den Hurke says this has been done on a very limited scale. She says that theres also an alternative form of benefit-sharing for individuals or companies where they can pay .5 percent of gross sales for a complete crop. No parties have chosen this option as its relatively expensive. Building Benefits As such in 2013 an Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing was formed to develop a range of measures for consideration and decision by the Sixth Session of the Governing Body met Oct. 5-9 in Rome Italy. Plantums van den Hurk chair of the International Seed Federations Sustainable Agriculture Committee which works under the Breeders Committee and Tom Nickson of Monsanto committee co-chair represent the interests of the ISF on the ad hoc working group. Through the work of van den Hurke Nickson and other committee members a first discussion paper was developed approved by the Breeders Committee and presented to the ad hoc working group in December. A more elaborate document was approved in March and was sent to the working group for discussion in June. The system as it is now is not appreciated for different reasons and thats why there is a working group thats trying to improve the multilateral system van den Hurk says. One of the rules of the treaty is that if you are contracting party that you should make your genetic resources of those 64 crops available in the multilateral system. In practice a lot of countries have not made those resources available. On the other hand some countries indicate that they will not make their genetic resources available as there is no benefit-sharing coming through the benefit-sharing fund. Van den Hurk explains that like the chicken and the egg its a struggle over which comes first. It might be true that theres not a lot of direct benefit-sharing but there is a lot of non-monetary sharing through developed varieties the breeding exemption and all sorts of support to maintain and improve genebank collections worldwide. It should be recognized that the breeding exemp- tion is a big benefit on its own. As part of the discussion paper ISF proposes a multi-optional approach to enhance the benefit- sharing portion of the treaty. One element of the approach is a subscription model that would be based on the crop accessed over multiple years. To encourage researchers and breeders to subscribe the recommended payment would be much lower than the current percentage. If accepted by the governing body different rates would apply for different crops taking into account a crops commercial value. In the discussion paper ISF also recommends a minimum incorporation threshold for consideration by the ad hoc working group. ISF proposes that if a product incorporates at least 3.125 percent of the plant genetic resources for food and agriculture from the multilateral system by pedigree five crosses andor incorporates a trait of value derived from the multilateral system then benefit-sharing obligations should be triggered. Trait of value is described as any trait that confers commercial value to a product including but not limited to agronomic traits traits conferring One of the rules of the treaty is that if you are contracting party that you should make your genetic resources of those 64 crops available in the multilateral system. In practice a lot of countries have not made those resources available. Anke van den Hurk CROPS OF THE TREATY Crops exchanged under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture include Breadfruit Asparagus Oat Beet Brassica complex Pigeon Pea Chickpea Citrus Coconut Major aroids Carrot Yams Finger Millet Strawberry Sunflower Barley Sweet potato Grass pea Lentil Apple Cassava BananaPlantain Rice Pearl Millet Beans Pea Rye Potato Eggplant Sorghum Triticale Wheat Faba beanVetch Cowpea Maize Astragalus Canavalia Coronilla Hedysarum Lathyrus Lespedeza Lotus Lupinas Medicago Melilotus Onobrychis Ornithopus Prosopis Pueraria Trifolium Andropogon Agropyron Agrostis Alopecurus Arrhenatherum Dactylis Festuca Lolium Phalaris Phleum Poa Tripsacum Atriplex Salsola