FAO: Genetic data on thousands of rice varieties to be included in international regulations

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Chinanews.com, Oct. 8-according to the news on the United Nations website on the 7th, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations pointed out in a press release on the 7th that the genomic sequences of more than 3000 different varieties of rice will be included in the International Treaty on Plant genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, enabling the global sharing of genetic information of these different varieties of rice, which is essential for planting and developing more crop varieties and ensuring food security in the future.

At present, countries and different organizations around the world are making efforts to store genetic materials in the seed bank, but the lack of access to genetic resource data makes it difficult for researchers and plant breeders to understand the genetic resources contained in different types of seeds stored in the seed bank.

With the rapid growth of population, climate change is causing more and more impacts on agricultural production, such as droughts, floods and pests, in order to meet the increasing demand for food and ensure food security, different crop species that are more efficient, less harmful to the environment and resistant to various climatic conditions need to be developed.

Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty on Plant genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which is regulated by FAO, noted that the genetic information provided by the International Rice Research Institute on more than 3000 species of rice was included in the Treaty, which was important to ensure future food security and contributed to global efforts to understand all relevant crop genetic resources.

The sixth meeting of the Council of the International Treaty on Plant genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which opened on the 5th of this month, will discuss the establishment of a globally unified global information system on plant genetic resources in order to improve the current multilateral system. The system will be developed and supervised by FAO and will include information such as how to obtain genetic materials and seed samples from existing gene banks.

The International Treaty on Plant genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the 31st FAO Conference on November 3, 2001 and entered into force on 29 June 2004. so far, there are 136 States parties to the Convention. The treaty establishes an international legal framework for global conservation and access to crop diversity, ensuring the sharing and sustainable use of plant genetic resources by users and providers of genetic material through the establishment of a global system of access to plant genetic resources.