Cultivating a Shared Future: How global cooperation through the International Plant Treaty secures our food future
Kent Nnadozie
Secretary, International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
In the Andean highlands, farmers still plant seeds their ancestors carefully saved centuries ago. In Africa’s Sahel, women’s seed cooperatives are reviving drought-tolerant varieties once thought lost. Across continents, these quiet acts of stewardship sustain our food systems and our future.
In the face of climate change, geopolitical tensions, biodiversity loss and rising food insecurity, one truth remains: no nation, community or institution can face these challenges alone. Our shared future depends on our ability to work together – across borders, across generations, and across sectors – to safeguard one of humanity’s most powerful assets: the seeds and crops that sustain life.
Born of this shared understanding, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, established under the FAO in 2001 and in force since 2004, provides a global framework for the conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) that underpin our agrifood systems. But beyond being a legal instrument, the Treaty serves as something even more vital today: a connector.
As a connector, the Treaty currently links 154 Contracting Parties, plus the European Union, in a spirit of cooperation and solidarity, acknowledging that no country is self-sufficient in the genetic resources needed to feed its people.
The International Treaty also connects generations, honouring the wisdom of smallholder farmers, local and indigenous communities, and bridging the worlds of science, policy and traditional knowledge. It unites public and private sectors, research institutions and seed banks, global policymakers and local communities, fostering partnerships that turn shared vision into action.
Through the Treaty’s Multilateral System, more than 2.5 million accessions of plant genetic resources are made available to scientists, farmers and plant breeders around the world, fuelling the development of varieties that are more resilient to droughts, pests, and other environmental threats.
Access is just one side of the coin. Equally vital is benefit-sharing, which is happening at many levels and in many ways, both monetary and non-monetary. The Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund ensures that the fruits of global collaboration return to those who conserve and nurture biodiversity at its roots. It supports community-led projects in some of the world’s most vulnerable regions, through projects that strengthen seed systems, conserve traditional varieties, and improve food and nutrition security from the ground up. For example, in Peru, where local and Indigenous farmers associated with the Potato Park received support from the Treaty to establish a community-based potato seed bank that now conserves 1 136 varieties. This infrastructure, funded by the Treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund, laid the foundation for broader social, cultural and economic opportunities. Today, these communities are forming a cooperative for seed multiplication, with support from the local municipality.
To strengthen this global system, Contracting Parties and Regions, together with farmers, civil society organizations, researchers and the private sector have been working together since 2013 in a dedicated policy process. Their proposal of a package of various measures that seeks to address the needs and expectations of all actors involved is now available for consideration by the Governing Body at its Eleventh Session (GB-11).
GB-11 in Peru offers a defining moment. Countries will have the opportunity to take decisive steps to strengthen the Multilateral System, agree on more effective benefit-sharing arrangements, and reaffirm their collective commitment to the farmers and communities who conserve the world’s crop diversity. The outcomes from Lima will help shape the future of global food security and biodiversity cooperation for years to come.
“Fostering biodiversity and food security” while “preserving heritage” and “cultivating a shared future”, the Theme of the Session, is what we must focus on. It is not simply about protecting seeds in a vault or gene banks. It is also about safeguarding the stories, heritage, cultures, knowledge and ecosystems those seeds embody, and using them to grow a more resilient and equitable agrifood system.
As delegates gather in Peru for the Eleventh Session of the International Treaty’s Governing Body (GB-11) this November, we must keep biodiversity and international cooperation at the centre of our response. Agricultural biodiversity is not a luxury; it is our insurance policy against an uncertain future. And the International Treaty ensures we act not in isolation, but as a global community.
Let us plant the seeds of solidarity today, so that tomorrow’s harvest is abundant, equitable and shared by all.
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