World's crops to be screened for climate traits

[Karl]

SciDev.Net – September 22, 2008

An international foundation is funding a drive to screen thousands of crops for traits that will be useful in adapting food production to climate change. The Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing around US$300,000 of funding this year for researchers in 21 agricultural institutions in 15 countries across the developing world. Around US$200,000 will be spent next year with a continued commitment in the long term.

Crops from banana to sweet potato will be screened to identify material that plant breeders can use to produce varieties adapted to conditions associated with climate change. Crop diversity is the biological foundation of agriculture, says Cary Fowler, executive director of the trust. "Without it agriculture cannot adapt to anything: pests, disease, climate change, drought, energy constraints … nothing. With crop diversity we can have an agricultural system that -- if we're smart -- is sustainable and productive, can feed people and fuel development."

Researchers will screen the crops by growing them in different stress conditions -- such as high salinity or high temperature -- and assessing how well they grow. Varieties with positive traits will be put into an open access database, says Fowler. Some will also be entered into a 'pre-breeding' programme. Integrating one or two genes from an old or wild variety into a modern variety is costly and difficult, says Fowler, and pre-breeding produces early-stage, new varieties with the desired traits, so that plant breeders can get a 'head start' on producing varieties for farmers' fields.

Read Full Article: World's crops to be screened for climate traits - SciDev.Net

[jadz]

I can sense Access and Benefits Sharing issues (ABS), among others. Will original cultivators of a 'climate-resistant' varieties of crops be equitably compensated?

[Karl]

Originally Posted by jadz

I can sense Access and Benefits Sharing issues (ABS), among others. Will original cultivators of a 'climate-resistant' varieties of crops be equitably compensated?

Thanks for raising the important issue of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS). While this concept and the related ideas of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) are often considered in relation to native biodiversity and related resource conservation and benefit distribution, in this instance it is the closely related sector "agro-biodiversity".

For clarification purposes, some background information on the idea of Access and Benefit sharing (ABS)...

> undp.org --Access and Benefit Sharing

Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing

Access to genetic resources and benefit sharing has been one of the most important and active themes of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The starting point for planning in this area is CBD Article 15: Access to Genetic Resources, which reads:

1. Recognizing the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources, the authority to determine access to genetic resources rests with the national governments and is subject to national legislation.

2. Each contracting party shall endeavor to create conditions to facilitate access to genetic resources for environmentally sound uses by other Contracting parities and not to impose restrictions that run counter to the objectives of this Convention.

3. For the purpose of this Convention the genetic resourses being provided by a contracting party as referred to in this Article and Article 16 and 19, are only those that are provided by contacting parties that have acquired the genetic resources in accordance with this convention.

4. Access, where granted shall be on mutually agreed terms and subject to the provisions of this Article.

5. Access to genetic resources shall be subject to prior informed consent of the Contracting Party providing such resources, unless otherwise determined by the party.

6. Each Contracting Party shall endeavor to develop and carry out scientific research based on genetic resources provided by other Contracting Parties with the full participation of, and where possible in, such Contracting Parties.

7. Each Contacting Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures, as appropriate, and in accordance with Articles 16 and 19 and, where necessary, through the financial mechanism established by Articles 20 and 21 with the aim of sharing in a fair and equitable way the results of research and development and the benefits of arising from the commercial and other utilization of genetic resources with the Contracting Party providing such resources. Such Sharing shall be upon mutually agreed terms.
...

There is a huge amount of writing about Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) within the biodiversity arena and also from within the dialogues on Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

[jadz]

Hi Karl,

Many thanks for the additional info!