scholarly journals Digital sequence information for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the impact on breeding researches

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryoko Machida-Hirano ◽  
Akio Yamamoto ◽  
Eiji Domon
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Sequence Information ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Farmers’ Rights and Digital Sequence Information: Crisis or Opportunity to Reclaim Stewardship Over Agrobiodiversity?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Wynberg ◽  
Regine Andersen ◽  
Sarah Laird ◽  
Kudzai Kusena ◽  
Christian Prip ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Convention On Biological Diversity ◽  
Sequence Information ◽  
Access And Benefit Sharing ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

Contestations about the way in which digital sequence information is used and regulated have created stumbling blocks across multiple international policy processes. Such schisms have profound implications for the way in which we manage and conceptualize agrobiodiversity and its benefits. This paper explores the relationship between farmers’ rights, as recognized in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the dematerialization of genetic resources. Using concepts of “stewardship” and “ownership” we emphasize the need to move away from viewing agrobiodiversity as a commodity that can be owned, toward a strengthened, proactive and expansive stewardship approach that recognizes plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as a public good which should be governed as such. Through this lens we analyze the relationship between digital sequence information and different elements of farmers’ rights to compare and contrast implications for the governance of digital sequence information. Two possible parallel pathways are presented, the first envisaging an enhanced multilateral system that includes digital sequence information and which promotes and enhances the realization of farmers’ rights; and the second a more radical approach that folds together concepts of stewardship, farmers’ rights, and open source science. Farmers’ rights, we suggest, may well be the linchpin for finding fair and equitable solutions for digital sequence information beyond the bilateral and transactional approach that has come to characterize access and benefit sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Existing policy uncertainties could be seized as an unexpected but serendipitous opportunity to chart an alternative and visionary pathway for the rights of farmers and other custodians of plant genetic resources.

scholarly journals Networks and coalitions in the implementation of the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Uganda

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Atieno Otieno Gloria ◽  
Wasswa Mulumba John ◽  
Seyoum Wedajoo Aseffa ◽  
Jae Lee Myung ◽  
Kiwuka Catherine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Food And Agriculture

scholarly journals Wheat genetic resources – how to exploit?

2011 ◽  
Vol 47 (Special Issue) ◽  
pp. S43-S48 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Börner ◽  
K. Neumann ◽  
B. Kobiljski
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Trait Loci ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Quantitative Trait ◽  
Molecular Mapping ◽  
Agronomic Traits ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Germplasm Collections ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Trait Loci

It is estimated that world-wide existing germplasm collections contain about 7.5 million accessions of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Wheat (Triticum and Aegilops) represents the biggest group comprising 900 000 accessions. However, such a huge number of accessions is hindering a successful exploitation of the germplasm. The creation of core collections representing a wide spectrum of the genetic variation of the whole assembly may help to overcome the problem. Here we demonstrate the successful utilisation of such a core collection for the identification and molecular mapping of genes (Quantitative Trait Loci) determining the agronomic traits flowering time and grain yield, exploiting a marker-trait-association based technique. Significant marker-trait associations were obtained and are presented. The intrachromosomal location of many of these associations coincided with those of already identified major genes or quantitative trait loci, but others were detected in regions where no known genes have been located to date.

Access to plant genetic resources for genomic research for the poor: from global policies to target-oriented rules

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels P. Louwaars ◽  
Eva Thörn ◽  
José Esquinas-Alcázar ◽  
Shumin Wang ◽  
Abebe Demissie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Breeding ◽  
Genetic Resources ◽  
Plant Genetic Resources ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Genomic Research ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Multilateral System

Applied genetics combined with practical plant breeding is a powerful tool in agricultural development and for food security. The Green Revolution spurred the world's potential to meet its food, feed and fibre needs at a time when vast regions were notoriously food-insecure. Subsequent adaptations of such strategies, from the late 1980s onwards, in order to develop new plant varieties in a more participatory way, have strengthened the focus on applying technology to farmers' diverse needs, feeding research results into a variety of seed systems. During these developments, there were no major legal impediments to the acquisition of either local or formal knowledge or of the building blocks of plant breeding: genetic resources. The emergence of molecular biology in plant science is creating a wealth of opportunities, both to understand better the limitations of crop production and to use a much wider array of genetic diversity in crop improvement. This ‘Gene Revolution’ needs to incorporate the lessons from the Green Revolution in order to reach its target groups. However, the policy environment has changed. Access to technologies is complicated by the spread of private rights (intellectual property rights), and access to genetic resources by new national access laws. Policies on access to genetic resources have changed from the concept of the ‘Heritage of Mankind’ for use for the benefit of all mankind to ‘National Sovereignty’, based on the Convention on Biological Diversity, for negotiated benefit-sharing between a provider and a user. The Generation Challenge Programme intends to use genomic techniques to identify and use characteristics that are of value to the resource-poor, and is looking for ways to promote freedom-to-operate for plant breeding technologies and materials. Biodiversity provides the basis for the effective use of these genomic techniques. National access regulations usually apply to all biodiversity indiscriminately and may cause obstacles or delays in the use of genetic resources in agriculture. Different policies are being developed in different regions. Some emphasize benefit-sharing, and limit access in order to implement this (the ‘African Model Law’), while others, in recognition of countries' interdependence, provide for facilitated access to all genetic resources under the jurisdiction of countries in the region (the Nordic Region). There are good reasons why the use of agricultural biodiversity needs to be regulated differently from industrial uses of biodiversity. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which entered into force in 2004, provides for facilitated access to agricultural genetic resources, at least for the crops that are included in the Treaty's ‘Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing’. Ratification of the Treaty is proceeding apace, and negotiations have entered a critical stage in the development of practical instruments for its implementation. Although the scope of the Treaty is all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, there are important crops that are not covered by its Multilateral System. Humanitarian licences are being used to provide access for the poor to protected technologies: countries may need to create such a general humanitarian access regime, to ensure the poor have the access they need to agricultural genetic resources.

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