Civil groups urge govt to reject compromise draft at Plant Treaty talks

India’s civil society groups and NGOs have strongly opposed the compromise proposal floated by the chair of the ongoing ITPGRFA negotiations, or Plant Treaty talks, in Lima, Peru, wherein it has been suggested that participating countries accept a revised plant material transfer agreement and expand the list of crops under the Multilateral System (MLS) to include all crops.

 

The compromise formula was floated earlier today, Indian time, sources said. Presently, the MLS has 64 crops and forages.

 

ITPGRFA is a legally binding global treaty adopted in 2001 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and came into force in 2004. Its stated objectives are conservation, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA).

   

The treaty establishes a multilateral system that provides access to a list of important crops for research and breeding, while ensuring that benefits from their use are shared among the signatories.

 

Of the 64 crops under the treaty, India, which is a signatory, has notified just nine, along with their 26,563 “accessions” for the MLS. An “accession”, in FAO terminology, is “a distinct, uniquely identifiable sample of seeds representing a cultivar, breeding line or a population, which is maintained in storage for conservation and use”.

 

India has been one of the top beneficiaries of the agreement without sharing much of its own seed germplasm resources, experts said.

 

The current round of negotiations started on Tuesday, November 25, and is slated to conclude later today or might extend up to tomorrow.

 

The Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch, an organisation representing over 100 seed committees across 18 Indian states, in a letter to the Indian delegation, said that India should immediately reject the “compromise document” proposed by the chair of ITPGRFA as signing the same would compromise India’s seed sovereignty.

 

It said the proposal asks India to adopt a revised SMTA today for germplasm while leaving the payment rates and scope of expansion to be decided years later.

 

The Manch said that agreeing to a mandatory expansion of the Multilateral System to all crops directly conflicts with India’s Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and the PPVFR Act, 2001.

 

They said instead India should not adopt any unilateral agreement without getting a full package of compensation and that there should not be any expansion of the MLS without a robust framework to tax or track.