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ountries gathering in the ministerial conference on biodiversity, food security and climate change on Friday declared their commitment to enhance the utilization of plant genetic resources for food security.

Concerned over the continuing erosion of agricultural biodiversity, extreme poverty, threats of food insecurity and the effects of climate change, the countries
engaged themselves to further develop the implementation of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).

The treaty was launched by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 2001. Up to 2009, it was ratified by 121 countries, which have committed to put their plant genetic resources into a multilateral system to allow similar access for the countries.

“We ministers responsible for the implementation for the treaty, are recognizing the importance and unique role of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture to address these challenges and demonstrate that the treaty is vital to achieve MDGs on the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, and ensure environmental sustainability,” the declaration stated.

The declaration also called upon contracting parties to prioritize activities within their mandates to implement the treaty, particularly on the Multilateral System, Standard Material Transfer Agreement and sustainable use of plant genetic resources and agriculture, and Farmers’ Rights.

All relevant stakeholders are also urged to mobilize more effective and timely contributions to implement the treaty’s benefit-sharing fund scheme.

The one-day conference involving 111 participants from 48 countries discussed that the world is facing challenges and pressure to sustain food security amid rapid population growth, coupled with the problems of natural resources degradation and climate change.

“The decline of agricultural biodiversity is indicated by the loss of plant genetic resources for basic food, a condition that threatens the sustainability of global food security,” said Agriculture Minister Suswono.

“Worse, the availability of food-producing plants has become very limited. To fulfill today’s need for food, the world relies only on rice, wheat, potato and maize,” he added.

The International Food Policy Research Institute predicted that by 2050, global production of rice may decrease by 27 percent, wheat by 42 percent and maize by 8.5 percent. Consequently, developing countries will have less capability to access sufficient calories.

Modibo Tarore, assistant director general of department of agriculture and consumer protection of FAO, said that plant genetic resources contained a wealth of commodities that farmers all over the world could draw to meet the new climate-driven challenges and sustain food production.

“It is important to enable farmers to adapt to climate change to enhance food security.”

He said that the treaty’s scheme of the benefit-sharing fund had generated a dozen projects, and that a fund of US$10 million was currently in the process of disbursement for projects to assist farmers in developing countries to adapt crops to climate change.

In the conference, Indonesia also conveyed its plan to contribute $100,000 for the benefit-sharing fund scheme.