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ignatory countries of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture have committed to take crucial steps in implementing the treaty in the face of climate change and food price hikes.

The 127 countries have created the gene pool under the treaty, reaching 1.5 million samples of
the world’s 64 most important food crops.

Meanwhile, a number of the signatories are still in the process of making their crop collections available through the treaty’s sharing system.

“Leading countries are urging other signatories to the treaty to act quickly to help it live up to its potential as a hedge against hunger and climate change,” said Clive Stannard, consultant and former interim secretary of the treaty said during the fourth session of governing body.

“This is the world’s best shot at ensuring equitable access to the world’s most precious resource — the crop diversity that underlies our food supply.”

More international commitment is urgently needed, and a mechanism for ensuring compliance
with the terms of the treaty remains unresolved.

“With climate change already altering growing conditions and populations rapidly increasing, preserving and sharing crop diversity on a global scale is no longer optional,” said Dr. Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the treaty’s governing body.

“No country — rich or poor — has within its borders the crop diversity required to meet future food needs. All countries need to improve the way they share their crop seed material as a matter of great urgency.”

International peasant forum La Via Campesina has expressed objections to the declaration, defending their rights against industrial seed patents.

Industry and most governments are using the treaty to legitimatize the industry’s access to the peasant’s seeds that are stored in collections around the world, “thus creating the required conditions for theft and monopoly control,” said La Via Campesina general coordinator Henry Saragih.