Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

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Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Latest News

Parties to the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture recently gathered in Rome for their 20th meeting (CGRFA-20).

About Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

It was initially established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1983 to address plant genetic resources (PGR).
It became the primary permanent international forum for governments to discuss, negotiate, and decide on matters specifically relevant to genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA).
Over time, the mandate of the Commission expanded, and now it deals with all sectors of GRFA – plant, animal, forest, aquatic, and microbial and invertebrate genetic resources, covering the vast scope of biodiversity for food and agriculture.
The Commission also considers a number of cross-cutting topics, including food security, nutrition and human health, mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, access to genetic resources and benefit sharing (ABS), and digital sequence information (DSI) on GRFA and biotechnologies for the characterization, sustainable use, and conservation of GRFA.
Member:
- It has 179 countries as its members.
- India is also a member of this commission.
The work of the Commission on Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) initiated in 1997 resulted in the preparation of the first-ever Report on the State of the World’s AnGR in 2007 and led to the negotiation and adoption of the Global Plan of Action for AnGR (GPA), also in 2007.
Some of the Commission’s landmark achievements include: the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).
It was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the FAO of the United Nations on 3 November 2001. The Treaty aims at:
- Recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world.
- Establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders, and scientists with access to plant genetic materials.
- Ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have originated.