|
June 13, 2005
Katie Mantell,
SciDev.Net
A new
international effort is underway to set up a US$260-million fund
to maintain the agricultural gene banks that are essential to
conserving crop diversity.
The money — which will be sought from private companies, among
others — would help ease the financial strain on the world's
1,300 agricultural gene banks, which are considered vital for
food security.
The Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) and the Italy-based
International Plant Genetic
Resources Institute (IPGRI) announced the proposal yesterday
(13 June) at the World Food Summit follow-up meeting in Rome.
"It is proving more and more difficult to secure the level of
funding needed each year to ensure long-term conservation" of
plant genetic resources, said Geoffrey Hawtin IPGRI Director
General.
Gene banks are generally maintained by annual funding, but this
has declined dramatically over the last decade, he said. And
many gene banks are located in developing countries, which
struggle to cover the costs of their upkeep.
"We have the technical knowledge at our disposal to make an
enormous breakthrough in the world against hunger," Hawtin said.
" We have the plant diversity collections to serve us as a
virtually inexhaustible source of genes for crop improvement.
What we do not have are the funds to properly exploit the
collections."
In an attempt to raise money for the new fund, the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) — which
supports a global network of agricultural research centres,
including the IPGRI — and the FAO are now in consultations with
a range of multilateral and bilateral agencies, corporations and
governments in both the North and the South.
An initial endowment of US$260 million — which represented new
funding, rather than the reallocation of existing resources —
would be enough to maintain banks of major crops, but not all of
the world's gene banks, Hawtin said.
Gene banks are a "critical weapon in the fight against poverty
and starvation" he said, because they preserve the genetic
diversity that is needed for crop improvement, whether through
conventional plant breeding or genetic engineering.
"With support from partners and friends, we can assure that
these collections remain available for all who need them today
and tomorrow throughout the world."
Hawtin hopes to formally announce the launch of the fund later
this year.
Copyright ©
2005
SciDev.Net
Geoffrey
Hawtin's speech at the Summit in Rome:
Mr Geoffrey
Hawtin
Director-General, International Plant Genetic Resources
Institute - IPGRI
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a
pleasure to address this audience.
For decades, scientists and policy makers have battled poverty
and hunger. Yet, despite significant progress, we have returned
to Rome knowing that the terrible problems confronting our food
insecure world are not yet behind us, despite the fine promises
made at the World Food Summit in 1996.
The solution to such seemingly overwhelming untractable problems
lies in a simple precept: sustainable development must be based
on sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture, for its
part, requires among other things open and unimpeded access to
the crop diversity that farmers and breeders need to
continuously keep us one step or more ahead of the pests,
diseases and climatic shocks that continually threaten
agricultural production systems.
The future harvest centres, supported by the Consultative Group
on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), hold significant
collections of crop diversity, more than half a million samples
of the world’s most important crops in gene banks around the
world. These collections have been entrusted to the care of the
centres under the terms of agreement signed with FAO in 1994.
The agreements obliged the centres to conserve the materials in
the collections to the highest technical standards of management
and to make them available on demand to anyone for use in crop
improvement and related activities.
The centres draw on the collections for their work in crop
improvement and the results have been nothing sure to stunning.
For example, it has been estimated that without the CGIAR
contribution to overall variety releases over the past 25 years,
prices for grain crops would now be between 27 and 41 percent
higher, depending on the crop. The material in the collections
is widely used by breeders and farmers outside of the centres as
well.
Since the 1980s, the gene banks have distributed over a million
samples to users worldwide. The adoption of the International
Treaty last November represents an important move forward in our
collective struggle for food security. The future harvest
centres fully support the Treaty and intend to sign new
agreements concerning the in-trust collections with the Treaty’s
governing body.
We have the technical knowledge at our disposal to make an
enormous breakthrough in the world against hunger. We have the
plant diversity collections to serve us as a virtually
inexhaustible source of genes for crop improvement. We have the
moral and the legal obligation under the International Treaty to
ensure that genetic resources are available to improve food and
agriculture. What we do not have are the funds to properly
exploit the collections and even the world's ability to meet its
obligations under the International Treaty is threatened.
Today, in large part due to the lack of financial resources,
many existing plant genetic resources collections around the
world fall short of international standards for gene bank
management. Many national programmes, even those that are able
to effectively conserve their genetic resources, often lack the
capacity to use the materials they hold to their full potential.
The funding situation for the future harvest centre collections
is also extremely grim. It is proving more and more difficult to
secure the level of funding needed each year to ensure long-term
conservation.
The future harvest centres, together with FAO, have thus joined
forces in an unprecedented effort to put important genetic
resource collections around the world on a secure footing for
all time. The goal is to establish a permanent endowment to
support the management and upkeep of crop diversity. The
endowment would represent a concrete effort to support the
implementation of the International Treaty as well as the Global
Plan of Action.
The initial funding for the endowment is been established at US$
260 million. Discussions are currently underway with a range of
multilateral and bilateral agencies, corporations, foundations
and government south and north. And it is to be hoped that we
will be in a position to announce the launch of the endowment
officially later this year.
Crop diversity, this critical weapon in the fight against
poverty and starvation, is far from secure. Genetic resources
activities at the local, national, regional and international
levels must continue and multiply if we are to meet the goals of
this Food Summit. This will not be possible unless the genetic
resource collections are given a secure and unassailable
financial underpinning.
With support from partners and friends, we can assure that these
collections remain available for all who need them today and
tomorrow throughout the world.
Thank you Mr Chairman.
Source:
http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsummit/top/detail.asp?event_id=12899
|
