The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
After seven years of negotiations by the Commission, the FAO Conference adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in November 2001. The International Treaty entered into force in 2004, after being ratified by 40 governments, and has a total of 154 Contracting Parties, including the European Union, as of May 2025.
The International Treaty aims to guarantee sustainable agriculture and food security through the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGFRA) and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their utilization. It recognizes the enormous contribution of Indigenous Peoples, and local communities as custodians on PGRFA over millennia, and calls on nations to protect and promote Farmers' Rights, subject to national laws: particularly to (a) protect traditional knowledge, (b) enable equitable participation in the benefits arising from the utilization of PGRFA, and (c) participate in relevant national decision-making. The Treaty’s Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing facilitates plant germplasm exchanges and benefit-sharing through the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), and is currently the largest global exchange mechanism for PGRFA.
This legally binding treaty covers all plant genetic resources relevant to food and agriculture. It is in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity. Both instruments help to track the progress made in adopting national access and benefit-sharing (ABS) frameworks and collaborate on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
No country is self-sufficient in plant genetic resources, and international cooperation and exchange of genetic resources are, therefore, of pivotal importance for food security. The International Treaty’s Multilateral System has facilitated access to key PGRFA and has supported 108 projects in 78 developing countries through its Benefit-sharing Fund.
The Commission and the Treaty’s Governing Body contribute in different, but mutually supportive, ways to the conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA. In 2009, the Commission adopted the Joint Statement of Intent for Cooperation with the Governing Body, and since then both bodies have adopted numerous decisions and resolutions reinforcing the importance of this collaboration.
The Secretariats of the Commission and the International Treaty continue to collaborate on a broad range of issues and activities of common interest, including on reports on the preparation of global assessments (reports on The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture), the monitoring and implementation of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, and the establishment of connections between the Treaty’s Global Information System on PGRFA (GLIS) and the World Information and Early Warning System on PGRFA (WIEWS).
