Union Agriculture Minister actively participated at the Eighth Session of Governing Body of Seed Treaty, FAO Headquarters in Rome

Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar reminded the audience that the protection of plant genetic resources is the common obligation of mankind while tending to the Opening Ceremony of eight session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), in Rome, Italy. Shri Tomar included that he speaks to one among those nations where cultivating is the foundation of the socio-economy; where crop biodiversity is an integral part of life and whose indigenous individuals, workers have molded the crop genetic resources that form the base of breeding elsewhere in the world.

The Governing Body sessions are biennial and this year it is being held from eleventh to sixteenth November with the support of representatives from 146 nations, worldwide organizations, common social orders, farmers’ associations, FAO authorities and UN organizations. The Opening Ceremony was additionally gone to by Ms Teresa Bellanova, Agriculture Minister, Italy and Dr. Qu Dongyu, Director General, FAO. Ms Christine Dawson from United States of America is the present Chair of the Treaty.

Shri Tomar, while educating the delegates about the uniqueness regarding Indian act “Security of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act” to ensure Farmers’ Rights and raiser’s privileges, said that in Indian act a farmer is qualified for spare, use, sow, resow, trade, share or sell his homestead produce including seed of a variety ensured under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 aside from brand name, and our enactment is completely consistent to article 9 of the Treaty. Under the series of this Act, 138 farmers have been granted with Plant Genome Savior Awards. India has gotten around 16,620 applications for Plant Variety Protection out of which 10,920 (66%) have been gotten from farmers alone.

ITPGRFA otherwise called Seed Treaty, is a comprehensive global agreement for guaranteeing food security through the preservation, trade and economical utilization of the world’s plant genetic resources for nourishment and horticulture (PGRFA), as well as the fair and equitable benefit sharing emerging from its utilization. It additionally perceives farmers’’ rights, subject to national laws.