Genetic resources are productive assets providing the basis for food security. Like land and water, local genetic resources get degraded when their use is not sustainable because local people who are wealthy and influential tend to over exploit these resources and deny access to the poor. The ability of the poor to access and use genetic resources has both short term and long term implications for their agriculture productivity as well as food and livelihood security.

Agricultural biodiversity, especially crop genetic diversity has been recognized as an effective strategy to minimize risks and provide insurance against climate change, pest and disease. Diversity in a farmer's field provides insurance over a longer period of time despite claims that it may lower productivity in the short term. For the rural poor cultivating small holdings, diversity in the agro ecosystems provides important sources of supplementary food like natural plant foods ( saag) and fish and animals that grow near fields and are available for free.

The reduction in crop diversity due to the Green Revolution has been documented for many crops. In China the number of cultivated wheat varieties declined from 10,000 in 1949 to only 1000 by the 1970's. Other studies have documented the loss of rice varieties in South Asia. India, home to a huge genetic diversity in rice has seen the loss of several thousand rice varieties. The economic effects of globalization on limiting crop choice are compounding the Green Revolution effect of reducing the diversity available to farmers. Introduction of hybrid varieties and genetically engineered varieties is expected to further erode genetic diversity. There is an urgent need now to intensify and expand the use of plant genetic diversity and agro biodiversity in general to increase choices and access to diversity in crops, and to maintain and restore healthy ecosystems to ensure sustainable food, production over the long term.

In the current situation, access to genetic resources is being curtailed by the Intellectual Property regimes that countries are being forced to adopt after the WTO/TRIPS agreement. In order to ensure that rural communities can continue to access genetic resources for their food and livelihood security, it is important for each country to draft domestic IPR legislation that will not hamper access to genetic diversity by the rural communities. Patents an genetic resources must not be allowed and rights granted to plant breeders must be matched with equally strong rights granted to farmers whose right to use natural and improved genetic resources must not be impaired. The Indian legislation, the Protection of Plant Varieties And Farmers Rights Act, 2001 is a law that grants strong rights to farmers and ensures that native and improved seeds are accessible to rural people. In addition to new legislation, customary rights that are enshrined in the Constitution of countries (like India) must be actively enforced to continue granting access to genetic resources.

Apart from these aspects, current practices granting access to genetic resources need to be supported. Access to genetic resources can happen through informal methods such as seed sharing among neighbors. Formal institutions such as seed stores and Kissan Melas, also provide farmers access to varieties. Both formal and informal institutions can work in complementary ways to increase the availability of diversity. This is not yet as common as it ought to be. Gene Campaign's farmer level Seed Banks in Jharkhand and Uttaranchal are an example of how to strengthen seed sharing among rural communities. The system followed here is that for every 1kg of seed that farmers access from the Gene Campaign Seed Bank, they return 3 kg. In this way the volume of the seed in the Bank increases every season and greater numbers of farmers can benefit from an increasing corpus of farm saved seed.

Access to bioresources should be ensured not just for now but also for future generations. The principle of inter-generational equity demands that agro biodiversity be conserved for future generations in order to support their food security and to conserve land productivity to enable them to engage in productive agriculture. The traditional Milpa system used in Mexico is a strategy of multi-cropping of legumes and maize that keeps the soil productive by returning the nitrogen absorbed by the maize to the soil. Diversity also preserves the land during times of agricultural stress by providing livelihood options to farmers to continue to cultivate the land and not abandon it. During such periods micro-environments increase in importance as they produce even under stress conditions. These biodiversity rich areas are of greatest importance to the poor, specially women who, because of social status or financial reasons, are unable to purchase food during crisis periods.