The Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC) and the Science Council of the CGIAR organized the workshop “Technical issues associated with the development of CGIAR policies to address the possibility of adventitious presence of transgenes in CGIAR ex situ collections” from 30 August-1 September 2004 in Rome, Italy.

The meeting was attended by technical experts from within and outside the Future Harvest centers, including CIMMYT. Representatives of all stakeholders, including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the private sector, NGOs and farmers were also invited. They explored ways and means to handle the unintentional presence of transgenes in germplasm collections, with the goal of providing technical inputs into a process that would enable each of the Future Harvest Centre genebanks to draw up procedures aimed at preventing the unintentional introgression of transgenes into the collections.

Based on the technical information from the workshop, the Genetic Resources Policy Committee drew up the draft guidelines. These draft guidelines are being circulated widely for further consultation and input by all stakeholders, with the expectation that a final version will be issued before April 2005. The individual Future Harvest genebanks of the CGIAR will then use the guidelines to draw up their policies.

CIMMYT has already implemented additional testing and other measures to address concerns about transgenes and its germplasm collections. Most recently, CIMMYT produced an updated operations manual, to further enhance and strengthen the collection and screening activities of its genebanks. Link: http://www.cimmyt.org/english/docs/manual/genebank/contents.htm

Click here to see CGIAR draft guidelines for GMO detection in gene banks.