01/07/2014

The Chief Agricultural Scientists of the G20 countries have favourably appraised DivSeek, an initiative that links large-scale sequencing and phenotyping data to publicly available germplasm accessions, following a presentation made by the Secretariat of the International Treaty on PGRFA at the Third Annual MACS Meeting held in Brisbane, Australia, from 19 to 21 June 2014. Organized by the Australian G20 Presidency, the MACS gathered the chief scientist and high-level research official from the world’s 20 largest economies and from international Organizations such as FAO, GFAR, CGIAR, and OEC.

The presentation of DivSeek was delivered jointly by the Treaty Secretariat and the Global Crop diversity Trust (GCDT) under the segment on agricultural innovation. The GCDT and the International Treaty host and implement a facilitation unit for DivSeek, in collaboration with the Global Plant Council and the CGIAR Consortium Office.

The circulation of the DivSeek White Paper to the G20’s Agricultural Chief Scientist animated a discussion on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture as one of the backbones of food production worldwide. The MACS issued a final note where they “noted with interest the global and stakeholder driven DivSeek initiative” and recognised “the importance of the next generation genetic resources, open access information system – that will enable the speeding up of crop improvement processes and thereby enhance resilience, food and nutritional security”.

“The catalytic potential of DivSeek, which we support in the context of the ongoing work for the development of a solid and coherent Global Information System on Plant Genetic Resources, is evident and our wish is that other organizations working in the field of genomics and phenomics join efforts in the coming months, under the umbrella of a cohesive and strategic initiative that links multiple communities of experts”, indicated Dr. Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty.

“DivSeek gives us opportunities to unlock the hidden value of plant genetic resources stored in our genebanks. The genebanks are not museums and we need not only to generate big data but also to put the vast range of plant genetic variation that those data show, to good use, for the benefit of food security”, said Marie Haga, Executive Secretary of the GCDT, during the event.

The MACS agreed “that public-private sector research collaboration and investment are critical drivers of innovations including technology development, and that governments can help by both investing in innovation, and fostering a regulatory environment in which businesses can invest with confidence”.

The MACS also welcomed the proposed integrated international investment facility for agricultural innovation and growth, as put forward by IFAD, GFAR and FAO in response to request from the second MACS meeting and the opportunity it provides “for greater involvement of G20 scientific capabilities in supporting capacity development in agricultural innovation around the world”.