06/12/2018

145 Contracting Parties

Rome, Italy, 02 December 2018 – Mongolia becomes the 145^th member of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture today. With an area of 1.5 million sq km, Mongolia is among the largest countries in the world, while simultaneously being one of the most sparsely populated.

“We are delighted to welcome Mongolia into the International Treaty community,” said Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty. “Joining the International Treaty provides a number of advantages, including access to the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing that comprises the world’s largest genepool of plant genetic material and a Benefit-sharing Fund that supports farmers, plant breeders and scientists in developing countries conserve and manage their plant genetic resources for purposes of food and agriculture.”

One of the first official international plant genetic resources activities in Mongolia date back to 1921, when the Vavilov Institute sent an expedition to collect samples of Mongolian plant genetic resources. Since then, Mongolia has been involved in international research activities with other countries, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, the Republic of Korea, Poland, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and the United States of America. Joining the International Treaty will further expand this international cooperation and provide access to over 2.3 million samples of plant genetic resources from around the world.

“The sustainable use of plant genetic resources is vital for our national agricultural development,” said Mr Bayarsukh Noov, General Director of the Institute of Plant and Agricultural Science. “Mongolia is experiencing drastic climate change with increasingly frequent droughts that cause significant damage to crop production and food security in our country. Plant genetic resources are essential to increase agricultural productivity and sustainability.”

The conservation of plant genetic resources in Mongolia was given added impetus with the establishment of the Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) section at the Institute of Plant and Agricultural Science (IPAS) in 1979. The PGR section is responsible for collecting, researching and conserving germplasm, including landraces and introduced accessions, their wild relatives, new or traditional plants, and developing new varieties adapted for different ecological conditions within Mongolia.

Agricultural production in Mongolia focuses primarily on cereals, including wheat, barley, oat, rye, buckwheat, as well as oil plants, potatoes and vegetables. A number of natural factors have limited agricultural development in the country, including high altitudes, extreme temperature fluctuations, long cold winters, limited rainfall and a growing season of just 3 months.

Mongolia is also a member of a number of other international entities, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar).

#BenefitSharing #PlantGenetics #ClimateChange #FoodSecurity #IntlCooperation

@PlantTreaty