EU signs treaty to save crop variety
Date: 07-Jun-02
Country: ITALY
Author: David Brough
With these signatures, a first step towards ratification by parliaments, the number of countries that have signed the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources rose to 26, the United Nations food body said.
"I hope that this signature will send a strong signal to other countries to follow suit," said Louise Fresco, assistant director-general for agriculture at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The treaty will enter into force after ratification by the parliaments of 40 countries. So far Eritrea, Egypt, Jordan and Guinea have ratified it.
On November 3 last year, FAO member states approved the treaty, which aims to ensure that plant genetic resources can be preserved and made available for research and plant breeding.
FAO expects more countries will sign the treaty during next week's world food summit at its Rome headquarters.
The summit will press the international community to achieve its goal of halving the number of hungry people to about 400 million by 2015.
It was unclear when the EU states would ratify the treaty, an FAO spokesman said.
After years of anguished debate pitting poor countries and environmentalists against multinational corporations and wealthier nations, the United States agreed for the first time last year that plant breeders developing new crop varieties must pay for access to public seed banks.
The seed banks lend out crop seeds, enabling research into new varieties of plants to increase resistance to disease and global warming and improve yields.
The treaty provides incentives to conserve and develop plant genetic resources, which are being lost at an alarming rate, said FAO plant geneticist Jose Esquinas-Alcazar.
It is estimated that 10,000 species have been used for human food and agriculture, the U.N. says. Only about 150 plant species now make up the diets of most of the world's people.
Of these, just 12 species provide over 70 percent of food, while four - rice, maize, wheat and potatoes - make up over 50 percent of the world's energy intake.
A non-governmental organisation that has tracked the progress of the treaty said the signing by EU states was an important step to help conserve plant genetic resources.
"The treaty could mean that poor farmers worldwide will continue to save, exchange, sell and plant the rich genetic seed varieties they have developed over thousands of years," said Patrick Mulvany of the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG).
