FAO 9th PLANT GENEIC MEETING – NEW DELHI, INDIA

The Director of Agriculture, Mr. Gregory Bailey was invited to attend a policy meeting organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The meeting, which was the 9th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was held in New Delhi, India from 19th to 24th September.

The Governing Body is convened under the provisions of Article 19 of the International Treaty and is open to all Contracting Parties to the International Treaty and relevant observers. Mr. Bailey attended, represented the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Barbuda Affairs and duly participated as the National Focal Point for Antigua and Barbuda. This meeting was not the first ITPGRFA meeting the Director attended and it is normally held biennially, however, due to the Pandemic the last one was held in 2018.

According to the Bailey, there are similarities to Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) but goes beyond plant variety. “This goes beyond any one particular variety, it seeks to protection plant genetics resources in food and agriculture, because we have losing genetic diversity for years, Bailey said.

The treaty is there to preserve this diversity in an effort to have a futuristic resource. “This treaty is looking at how do we preserve these Genetic Material for future generation to use. So, they have what they call seeds box or genes box based around the world and all members who contribute can stored their genetic material for longevity in these boxes”, Bailey added.

The last three meeting Bailey attended complimented each other because their main focus was pertaining to the preservation and management of plant materials. All of which falls under the umbrella of “Food Security”.

Bailey added that in addition to the meeting there was a launch of the platform for the International Year of the Millet. Millet seemed to be a crop that requires less input for more output. “Traditionally, Millet has been grown in Antigua but been used as animal feed but it is being reconsidered for human consumption and there are hundreds of varieties of Millet, similar to corn there are a wide variety of corn. So it might be a crop for the future,” advised Bailey.