International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)
Why in news?
The 11th Governing Body meeting (GB-11) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) concluded in Lima, Peru, on November 29, 2025, without consensus on expanding the Multilateral System (MLS) crop list or revising the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA); these decisions were deferred to the next session.
Key Meeting Outcomes
- The chair proposed a compromise to extend MLS coverage to all crops and include Digital Sequence Information (DSI), but biodiversity-rich nations, including India, opposed it due to concerns over seed sovereignty and potential corporate exploitation.
- Consultations on conservation, sustainable use of plant genetic resources, and benefit-sharing continued but yielded no breakthroughs.
India's Position
- Indian civil society, scientists, and farme
- rs urged the government to reject expansions, citing risks to farmers' rights, lack of traceability in over 400,000 germplasm transfers from India, and bio-piracy via IPR on digitized sequences.
- India remains a top beneficiary under the current 64-crop MLS without major reciprocal sharing.
- The All India Kisan Sabha called for nationwide protests on December 10 against related seed policies.
About ITPGRFA
Adopted in 2001 under FAO and effective from 2004, ITPGRFA is a legally binding international agreement that promotes conservation, sustainable use, and equitable benefit-sharing of plant genetic resources for food security, harmonizing with the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Key Objectives and Features
- The treaty aims to conserve and sustainably use plant genetic resources for food and agriculture to support food security worldwide.
- It establishes a Multilateral System (MLS) that provides shared access to a list of important crops and forages, covering about 80% of the global food supply from plants, for research, breeding, and training.
- The MLS ensures that recipients of genetic material cannot claim intellectual property rights that restrict further access to those resources in the form they were received.
- Benefits derived from the use of these resources, including commercial gains, are shared fairly through mechanisms such as information exchange, technology access, capacity building, and monetary contributions to a benefit-sharing fund.
- The treaty explicitly recognizes farmers' rights, including the protection of traditional knowledge, equitable participation in benefit sharing, and involvement in national decision-making on conservation and sustainable use.
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