Plant Treaty Governing Body Examines Budget, Farmers Rights, Funding Strategy

The governing body of the international plant treaty is holding its annual meeting this week with a number of issues to go through, in particular the adoption of the next biennium budget, and the funding strategy of the treaty.

The Sixth Session of the Governing Body of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) is taking place in Rome from 5-9 October 2015.

According to the provisional agenda [pdf], delegates were expected to consider the enhancement of the functioning of the multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. A draft resolution [pdf] for this agenda item asks that the governing body agree to a package of measures to increase user-based payments and contributions to the benefit-sharing fund “in a sustainable and predictable long-term manner.”

This includes revising the standard material transfer agreement (SMTA) “to elaborate elements of a Subscription System for user-based payments within the Multilateral System.”

A report [pdf] on the funding strategy of the treaty was also expected to be considered by the governing body, which was to take into account the recommendations provided by the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System and relates to enhancing the functioning of the Funding Strategy.

Recommendations of the working group included exploring a proposal to develop a mechanism of contributions by contracting parties, to propose a target for the income of the Benefit-Sharing Fund for the 2018-2023 period, and to explore the consolidation of a long-term investment strategy for the Benefit-sharing Fund.

Also on the agenda was the report and review [pdf] of submissions on the implementation of Article 9 on farmers’ rights, and reports on the cooperation with international instruments and organisations, such as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

A report [pdf] on the plant treaty’s cooperation with other international organisations lists the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, which had raised concerns from civil society (IPW, UPOV, 2 April 2015).

Separately, the FAO said on 7 October that genome sequences of more than 3,000 rice varieties have been placed with the ITPGRFA by the “world’s leading rice research institute ” in a move to boost plans to set up a global data exchange system for crop generic resources, according to a press release.

 

Image Credits: Catherine Saez