Takeaways From ITPGRFA Governing Body Meet: Benefit-Sharing From Plant Genetic Resources is at Risk
Alongside soil, water and sunshine, the control of seeds and plants is fundamental to the control of agriculture, food, health, and survival for all. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) conserved by farmers and utilised for food production are important to cope with the climate challenge. Technology rich countries continue to influence discussions from outside the formal voting process, advocating for systems that favour the private corporates in seed sector.
The 4th Industrial Revolution technologies that blur the lines across physical, digital, and biological domains have entered seed systems. The digitalisation of seeds’ DNA is generating the unstoppable growth of big data on digital sequences information (DSI). In the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) an agreement on rates for benefit sharing from plant genetic resources exchange and DSIs remains outstanding due to the divergent positions between biodiversity rich and technology rich nations.
The legal vacuum for DSI aggravates the dematerialisation and fragmentation of seed, rendering it easier to control under legal, technological, social, financial, and logistical enclosures. DSI allows accumulation of PGRFA in a way and at a speed that in situ (in the natural habitats where they evolved) or ex situ (in gene banks) conservation methods did not allow due to their cost and complexity. In the year 2019, for the first time in its history, a governing body (GB) session of the ITPGRFA was concluded without a closing session due to the delegates being unable to agree on the terms for an enhanced access and benefit-sharing (ABS) system that would include DSI. At the Ninth Session of the ITPGRFA (GB) held at New Delhi in the year 2022, DSI /genetic sequence data and rates from benefit sharing payments came up but remained unresolved. The collapse in negotiations extended the legal vacuum during which seed companies were able to continue to grow their big data sets for DSI.
Contentious issues
This time in Lima, Peru at the ITPGRFA GB 11, the delegates decided to postpone key decisions to the GB 12. The major areas of contention were the enhancement of the multilateral system (MLS), the pending revision of standard material transfer agreement (SMTA) and ABS from the exchange of germplasm. The proposal to expand the MLS from 64 crops/forages to all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture was the ask of the technology rich world represented prominently by the Switzerland and the USA at Lima. The USA is not a contracting party to the ITPGRFA, but participates as an observer generally aligning with positions that emphasise open access and do not want mandatory benefit sharing from profits gained in global seed business.
Digital robbery
Digital robbery will continue. Digitising genetic material distances the people from PGR. Data are the new cash crop, the conversion from common to private good. In DSI databases, farmers’ relations, knowledge, and contributions to seed system get lost. But it is important to remember that genes can only be patented once they have been isolated, extracted from an organism. This process has transformed genes into tradeable, sellable, and patentable subject matter. The food regime is now a regime embedded in digital industrial engineering and plant biotechnology pursuing synthetic biology applications. The fact that GitHub, the world’s most widely used open-source software host – now owned by Microsoft since 2018 – has built its physical facility next to the world’s biggest Seed Vault in Svalbard does show that food and seed sovereignty are closely connected to technological sovereignty struggles.
FAO facilitating DivSeek
In 2012, DivSeek, a collaboration of 69 institutional and corporate members (including multinational corporations such as Bayer Crop Science (now owns Monsanto) and DuPont Pioneer (now owns Dow and exists as Corteva), contributing to the corporatisation of these big data with no mention of access and benefit-sharing. The DivSeek has been sequencing plant genetic material held in national and international gene banks, originally collected from farmers’ communities under the assumption that it would remain in the public domain. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has been facilitating and accelerating the progress of DivSeek through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed in the year 2022 with no commitment to benefit-sharing. Technology rich countries claim that it is essential to maintain a conceptual distinction between physical genetic material and data associated with that material, arguing that the creation of data requires resources and skills; this perspective sees DSI as human-made.
Farmers sans benefit-sharing
Bio-diversity rich nations see DSI as an inherent part of PGRFA, with its value deriving from a historical stewardship of resources by farmers. The benefit-sharing component of the ITPGRFA has been unsuccessful for farmers of bio-diversity rich nations; no money from users accessing PGR from the MLS is forthcoming. There is no support for projects on conservation and sustainable use in developing countries. The ITPGRFA GB 11 held in Lima, Peru, from November 24-29, was expected to put a closure to the twelve years long negotiations on the amendments to the global treaty adopted in 2001 by the FAO. The stated objectives of this global treaty are conservation, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the PGR.
Corporate capture
The meeting concluded due to lack of consensus between the technology rich developed world, who refused to commit on monetary and non-monetary benefits, while bio-diversity rich developing countries sought sovereign rights on seeds and a farmer-centric benefit-sharing mechanism. The global seed companies have their headquarters located in the USA, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherland, and Germany. Alwin Kopse, was a Swiss delegate, and has served Nestle and Syngenta. Before joining the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, Alwin Kopse worked for Syngenta International AG, including as a company spokesman, and has led the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, an industry-heavy global standard-setting initiative. The representatives of biodiversity-rich countries of Africa, Argentina, Peru, and India opposed his compromise proposal in one voice at the concluding session on November 29, 2025.
Resistance matters
A key negotiating challenge facing the developing countries was that Dr. Sunil Archak, the negotiator from India was the co-chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group that the GB had set up to bring consensus on the proposals prepared for the acceptance of the delegates of developing countries under the influence of the developed countries. India did not have even an independent negotiator to support the voice of the Global South on their respective proposals. Archak had made a presentation to the stakeholders of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPVFRA) on October 27, 2025 which raised the alarm bell. The PPVFRA stakeholders meeting indicated that India’s stand was getting compromised. The Indian democratic opinion wanted the Government of India (GOI) to stand up along with the Global South and resist the pressures of the developed nations.
Concluding remarks
The outcome of ITPGRFA GB 11 has a key lesson for the democratic movement. India needs a civil society independent of the influence of the government and business. The resistance put up by All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), Bharat Beej Swaraj Manch and Scientists for Genetic Diversity (SGD) and Third World Network (TWN) made a difference to the outcome. The SGD communicated by writing publicly their four letters to the minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare which got international publicity and had a positive impact on the stand taken ultimately by the Indian delegation. In India, a section of the media including The Wire also stood with the civil society. The delegations of developing countries came personally to tell the TWN representative that the Indian resistance mattered at Lima.
Dinesh Abrol is Member, Scientists for Genetic Diversity (SGD) group, Chief Scientist (Retired), CSIR-NISTADS, Professor (Retired), ISID, and EC Member, Delhi Science Forum.
This article went live on December fifth, two thousand twenty five, at twenty-eight minutes past three in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
