ROME - The world's public seed banks are starved for cash and need an injection from donors of $260 million to protect crop varieties and aid the war on hunger, a leading plant geneticist said yesterday.
About 1,300 gene banks, containing some six million samples, exist around the world to conserve the world's seeds, aiding research into new food varieties, the United Nations says. "This material is under threat," Geoffrey Hawtin, director general of the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), told reporters at a World Food Summit organised by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
IPGRI, based near Rome, is an independent group that promotes conservation of plant genetic resources.
Agricultural biodiversity has shrunk rapidly as farmers have demanded more productive crops.
According to FAO, over time some 10,000 plant species have been used for human food and farming, but now no more than 120 species provide 90 percent of human food supplied by plants.
Agricultural research bodies are now meeting donors, including life sciences multinationals and governments, to seek $260 million to keep the world's seed banks going, Hawtin said.
"We are extremely concerned that the diversity on which agriculture depends is being rapidly eroded," he said.
The figure of $260 million arose from a feasibility study by international agricultural research bodies into how much money would be needed to maintain the seed banks.
Earlier, Hawtin told Reuters in an interview that talks with donors had been positive and that a formal appeal was likely to be launched before the end of the year.
"We would like when we make the announcement to have got fairly firm guarantees of a substantial part of that - in the range of say $80 to $100 million," he said.
MANY SEED BANKS IN PRECARIOUS STATE
Asked what would happen to the world's public seed banks if the appeal failed, Hawtin said: "Already many of the gene banks are in a pretty precarious state. All of them are struggling for funding, particularly those in developing countries."
Protecting the world's crop variety is vital to winning the war on hunger, Hawtin said.
"In situations after drought, after civil unrest, hurricanes or whatever, where local communities can lose their own planting material, gene banks give the opportunity to reintroduce the seeds that people are used to," he said.
"Furthermore, as old varieties succumb to disease, and as the global climate changes, there is a need for biodiversity."
Wheat, barley, chickpea and lentil seeds can be preserved in sealed packages in cold storage at minus 18 degrees Celsius for between 50 and 100 years at gene banks, Hawtin said.
In November last year, FAO member states approved a landmark treaty to protect the world's crop variety.
The treaty, which needs to be ratified by 40 states, has so far been signed, a first stage to ratification, by 43 countries and ratified by eight, FAO officials said.
Under the treaty, any commercial profit arising from research into seeds taken from a gene bank will have to be paid into a new fund benefiting the seed banks.
"A share of royalties must be paid in return for access," Hawtin said.
"The endowment (funds) for the world's seed banks is important so that the treaty is not just on paper, but can be implemented to preserve plant genetic resources for the future."
In a protest against genetically modified crops, anti-globalisation campaigners attacked an experimental field in Italy yesterday.
Campaigners led by French farmer Jose Bove wrapped condoms around genetically modified olive trees in a field outside Tuscia, north of Rome, to highlight what they view as the dangers of cross-pollination to other trees.
The FAO summit declaration on Monday called on agricultural research bodies to advance research into new technologies, including biotechnology. The summit, aimed at reviving enthusiasm in the war on hunger, ends today.:
