Representative photo
NEW DELHI: Civil society organisations and farmer groups on Tuesday expressed their concerns over the proposed amendments to the international plant genetic resources treaty, saying the changes would lead to the opening up of almost all of India’s genetic resources related to agriculture and food to seed companies of developed countries.They jointly wrote to Union ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bhupender Yadav, flagging that the move at the upcoming global forum in Peru would in effect dismantle India’s ability to determine how, when and by whom its agricultural genetic resources are accessed.The issues, including the proposed amendment, is scheduled to be discussed at the upcoming 11th session of the governing body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) in Lima, Peru, during Nov 24-29.The organisations, led by Asha (Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture) Kisan Swaraj, demanded that the govt appoint a well experienced multilateral negotiator to attend negotiations in Lima, who can protect the nation’s interests, especially the interests of the custodians of plant genetic resources, the country’s farmers.In their letter to the ministers, the civil society groups said, “The draft package, if adopted, will force India to share the genetic wealth with the Global North (developed countries) where the big agribusiness, big tech, multinational seed companies, biotech industry, major gene banks, and research organizations are located, but without accountability and transparency measures in place. “As these actors would be able to access all the Indian Plant Germplasm from national collections, international gene banks, and CGIAR institutions without informing the national authorities of the provider countries, and they will have to just sign a precarious Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) adopted by the GB of the Plant Treaty.”Their letter came days after a group of scientists wrote a similar letter to Chouhan. The scientists raised objections over a proposed move to tweak provisions of benefit sharing on use of genetic resources. The scientists flagged that the current proposals to “enhance” the treaty’s multilateral system are fundamentally unjust and pose an immediate, existential threat to India’s sovereign rights over its vast genetic wealth and the fundamental rights of its farmers.Genetic resources are currently shared under law for research and advancements in medicine and agriculture. It is largely believed that the full access to such resources, instead of a negotiated access, could significantly compromise the nation’s sovereign rights over its own genetic resources and override domestic legislation, like India’s Biodiversity Act.
