10/03/2015

The Secretariat of the International Treaty is making available online the statistics on the Multilateral System in order to increase the understanding of germplasm flows, as part of the Global Information System on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

“This week we have achieved two big milestones,” said Dr. Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty. “On one side, we have published online this new module with statistics complementing the functions of Easy-SMTA and the Global Information System and, on the other, we have registered almost 2 million samples of material that have been transferred using that Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA).”

The online publication of the statistics, which are created from the Data Store “on-the-fly,” were authorized by the Governing Body and presented in Rome on the occasion of the second meeting of the Bureau of the Sixth Session, after a period of development and testing. Almost 96 percent of the material in the Multilateral System belongs to one of the crops listed in Annex 1 of the Treaty, while 244,000 samples are material under development. The figures demonstrate that the global genepool of the Treaty is a reality, supporting the work of 6,215 recipients in 157 countries. 

“These statistics are as good as the information reported by the providers of the material,” added Dr Bhatti. “From the Secretariat’s side, we are making documentation available, while preserving the confidentiality of the individual transfers, and we are providing assistance to the users, so that the statistics can be further improved in the future.”

Helping the Users

The statistics available on-line show the SMTAs and material sent and received, the users of the system, and PGRFA still under development.  The on-line statistics also presents the figures at the regional level, differentiates between the transfers of material to contracting parties and those to non-contracting parties, indicates how much material belongs to Annex 1 of the International Treaty, as well as the amount of material transferred by organizations that have signed Article 15 Agreements with the Treaty.  

The statistics are available in four languages and integrate information from the Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which are among the major providers of materials into the MLS. Furthermore, these statistics add value to the existing information reported on developing and developed countries by the World Bank.  The on-line statistics also present selected information in the form of pie charts, which can be easily downloaded in several image formats (i.e. PNG, JPEG, PDF, and SVG), and re-used.

The Treaty Secretariat is now developing interactive statistical maps, which could also contribute to a better understanding of the statistics and be valuable aids in the ongoing discussion on the enhancement processes of the Treaty’s existing mechanisms and programmes, such as the Multilateral System and Access and Benefit-sharing and the Benefit-sharing Fund.

Statistics: https://mls.planttreaty.org/itt/index.php?r=stats/pubStats

Charts: https://mls.planttreaty.org/itt/index.php?r=stats/pubCharts

Note:  The pie chart indicates the number of SMTAs received by Region as of 9 March 2015.