Highlights and images for 1 April 2024

“We live in an interdependent world,” Co-Chair Sunil Archak (India) reminded delegates, highlighting the crucial role of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) for sustainable agriculture and global food security. The Treaty facilitates exchanges of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) and the sharing of benefits arising from them. This is key not only to conserve agricultural biodiversity and foster agricultural research for the benefit of all, but also to ensure equity and justice. 

First established in 2013, the Working Group has a long history. It aims to enhance the functioning of the Treaty’s Multilateral System (MLS) of access and benefit-sharing through, on the one hand, revising the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) used for exchanges and, on the other, expanding the list of crops available in the MLS. Deliberations now focus on three “hotspots:” payment structure and rates under the draft revised SMTA; benefit-sharing from digital sequence information (DSI) / genetic sequence data (GSD); and expansion of Annex I (list of crops in the MLS). The 13th meeting opened with a focus on payment structure and rates. 

Following updates on developments in other relevant fora, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the ITPGRFA Standing Committee on the Funding Strategy, the Working Group addressed a Co-Chairs’ proposal on the package of measures, developed on the basis of intersessional work, including in a drafting group on the payment structure. Deliberations were also informed by an informal meeting held the previous day, which discussed a CGIAR study on the patent landscape of inventions related to PGRFA and related DSI/GSD, and provided space for an initial exchange of views on the payment structure, rates, and thresholds. The informal discussion indicated that several participants had concerns with the drafting group’s suggestion, that had been incorporated in the Co-Chairs’ proposal.  

That proposal envisaged a payment structure with two alternative systems for access and six different payment rates, including: a subscription system incorporating both PGRFA and DSI, with two payment options, an early and a deferred one, each of them with differentiated rates depending on whether the product is available for further research and breeding or not; and an option for “single access” to a specific crop, with payments to be triggered by the commercialization of a product, again with two different payment rates, depending on whether the product is available for further research and breeding or not, and calling for voluntary payments on DSI.  

Opening the Working Group’s deliberations, Co-Chair Michael Ryan (Australia) noted that, during the informal meeting, parties had called for removing the deferred payment option under the subscription system and the voluntary payments for DSI/GSD under the “single-access” option. A round of regional statements confirmed that positions remain divided on whether access to the MLS should be upon subscription only or include a single access option.  

Africa, the Near East, and the Latin America and the Caribbean region (GRULAC) expressed support for a subscription-only system to ensure predictability of funding and legal certainty. North America called for maintaining two options for access, citing the need to attract users. Europe and South West Pacific stressed the need to reduce complexity. Asia recalled the region consists of both user and provider countries, with divergent positions on a number of issues.  

During deliberations, delegates underscored the complexity of the text and the need to clearly outline the payment options. A Friends of the Co-Chairs group convened in the evening to: remove references to the deferred payment option under the subscription system; remove mentions to voluntary payments from use of DSI/GSD; and draft a new paragraph under Article 6 of the SMTA (rights and obligations of the recipient) that introduces the user to the different payment options.