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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 1970s. 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 agrobiodiversity 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 on 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 neighbours. 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 one kg of seed that farmers access from the Gene
Campaign Seed Bank, they return three 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 the crisis period.
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