Italy Donates to International Treaty to Conserve Food Crop Varieties

Italy has contributed 1.2 million euros to a benefit-sharing scheme by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture aimed at conserving and propagating diverse food crop varieties to assure global food security. The Treaty established a global pool comprised of 64 food crops and stipulates that "whenever a commercial product results from the use of this gene pool and that product is patented, 1.1 percent of the sales of the product must be paid to the Treaty's benefit-sharing fund."

"Plant genetic diversity is crucial to confront the global challenges of food insecurity and climate change. Italy's support for the Benefit-sharing Fund of the Treaty will promote a sustainable and diversified food basis of smallholder farmers in the developing world," said Shivaji Pandey, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) Plan Production and Protection Division.

The initiative hopes to raise $10 million this year and has already invested in 11 global projects aimed at smallholder farmers in developing countries. Other countries that have made contributions include Spain, Norway and Switzerland.

The full story is at http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/42570/icode/