Norway Contributes to International Treaty
29/06/2020
The Role of Seeds in the Fight against Hunger
Rome, Italy, 26 June 2020 – The Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food announced its annual contribution of approximately 1 million Norwegian Kroners (approximately USD 103 000) to the Benefit-sharing Fund of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The Fund supports smallholder farmers in developing countries use and grow a rich diversity of crops.
“Robust and locally adopted seeds are even more important when facing climate change, to which smallholder farmers in the global South are the most vulnerable,” said Olaug Bollestad, Minister of Agriculture and Food, in announcing Norway’s contribution to the Fund.
“Times like these, when the world is facing an impending food crisis as a consequence of the global health pandemic caused by COVID-19, it is more important than ever to support the smallholder farmers who feed the world,” said Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty. “We greatly appreciate Norway’s continuing support to the projects funded by the Benefit-sharing Fund,” he said.
The Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) of the International Treaty enables the sharing of benefits from the use of material in the Multilateral System, by supporting projects in developing countries. To date, the Fund has benefited over 1 million people through 80 projects in 67 developing countries, transforming food systems and helping smallholder farmers use crop varieties best-suited to their unique environmental conditions.
The International Treaty and its Benefit-sharing Fund contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 2, highlighting the importance of genetic diversity in achieving the goal of ending hunger.
In addition to supporting the conservation and sustainable use of seeds and other plant genetic resources for food and agriculture by providing financial support to the BSF, Norway also hosts the Global Seed Vault, which serves as a failsafe back-up of the world’s major crops.
“Norway provides the (Svalbard Global) Seed Vault to the genebanks of the world to give them a safe place to store duplicates of their seeds. We must take care of the seeds in genebanks and in the fields of farmers. We must, therefore, support farmers and local communities so that they can continue taking care of seed diversity,” said Minister Bollestad.
This is the 12th consecutive year that Norway has made an annual contribution to the BSF. The contribution is equivalent to 0.1 per cent of the value of seed and plant material traded in agriculture in Norway last year.
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- To see Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food’s announcement in Norwegian, please CLICK HERE.
- To see 1-minute film on the International Treaty & the Global Seed Vault, please CLICK HERE.
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