Material Transfer Agreements, Multilateral System, Sovereign Rights, Plant Genetic Resources Food Agriculture, Global System Plant Genetic Resources

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Biodiversity and its Conservation
Biodiversity and its Conservation Introduction
Current Levels of Biodiversity
Alpha (α) and Beta(β) Biodiversity
Extinction and Endangered Species
Reasons of Concern for Loss of Biodiversity
Ethical and Aesthetic Rewards
Economic Benefits
Essential Services Provided by Natural Ecosystems
Steps to Preserve Biodiversity
In Situ and Ex Situ Conservation Gene Banks
In Situ Conservation
Ex Situ Conservation
Ex Situ Conservation Efforts at International Level
Ex Situ Conservation Efforts by G-15 Countries
Ex Situ Conservation Efforts in USA

	Material transfer agreements and multilateral system for PGRs With the introduction of 'sovereign rights' of individual countries on their biodiversity, developing countries are busy in formulating laws to regulate the earlier unrestrained free flow of their native germplasm. However, no country is self sufficient in plant genetic resources, so that agriculture in every country is, to a very large measure, dependent on supply of PGRs from other parts of the world.
For instance, USA and Australia are 100% dependent, Africa (south of Sahara) is 87% dependent, and in fact 52 of 72 countries were found in a study to acquire more than half of their crop production from crops domesticated in other regions. Brazil, a country which is very rich in biological diversity, is also heavily dependent upon genetic resources originating elsewhere in the world; almost 50% of their nutrition (in terms of energy) comes from rice, wheat and maize, all originating elsewhere. Only cassava, providing 70% energy, originated in Brazil. Same may be true for India, although similar detailed data are not available. Since the different countries depend on each other for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA), international cooperation for access to these PGRFA is essential.
Many involved in research on crop plants also argue that PGRFA should continue to be freely available and that an international agreement should be negotiated under the framework of CBD. In this connection, the earlier system, i.e. the system prior to enforcement of CBD on December 29, 1993, consisted of: (i) IARCsNARS (developing countries), which provided the backbone of international efforts in crop genetic resources and plant breeding (discussed earlier in this article) and (ii) GSPGR (Global System for Plant Genetic Resources) of FAO under the legal framework of 'International Undertaking on PGR' (being discussed below). These two systems worked in tandem.