Rome, Italy
April 20, 2007
Recognizing that the fight against hunger cannot
be won without securing fast-disappearing crop biodiversity, the
Global Crop Diversity Trust
and its partner the United Nations Foundation announced today a
joint initiative to safeguard 21 of the world’s most critical
food crops through securing their seeds.
The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation is funding the initiative with a US$37.5
million grant, the largest crop biodiversity preservation grant
ever made, which includes US$7.5 million in matching funds from
the government of Norway. Among the crops covered are many
"orphan crops" – crops particularly important to the poor but
largely neglected by modern plant breeding, despite the need for
high-yielding, nutritious varieties.
"This initiative will rescue the
most globally important developing-country collections of the
world’s 21 most important food crops," said Cary Fowler,
Director of the Trust. "It will secure at-risk collections in
poor countries and document their astonishing diversity, making
it available to meet the food needs of the poor." The initiative
will also help bolster implementation of the new Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.
The unprecedented effort will
secure over 95 percent of the endangered crop diversity held in
developing country genebanks, many of which are under-funded and
in disrepair. In addition, it will fund a comprehensive global
information system that will allow plant breeders everywhere to
search genebanks worldwide for traits needed to combat new
diseases and cope with climate change.
"Our effort to help hundreds of
millions of small farmers and their families overcome poverty
and hunger rests in part on food security," said Sylvia Mathews
Burwell, President of the Gates Foundation’s Global Development
Program. "But there can be no food security without first
securing the basis of our food production – the genetic
diversity of every crop, in particular those most important to
the poor that unfortunately are neglected by modern plant
breeding. We invite others to join us in securing this resource
of immeasurable value."
"By providing
access to crop genetic information, plant breeders across Africa
may be able to adapt their crops to varieties that will grow in
different climate conditions. Investing in this future may help
stave off potential catastrophic damage to some agricultural
systems due to climate change. Not only will this partnership
combat hunger and protect crop diversity, but it also helps
nations prepare for the impacts of climate change," said Timothy
E. Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.
The genetic
diversity found within each crop is the raw material that
enables plant breeders and farmers to develop higher yielding,
more nutritious, and stress-resistant varieties. It is also the
cornerstone of successful adaptation to climate change,
providing the raw material for new "climate-ready" crop
varieties. But much of this diversity, held in developing
country gene banks, is threatened by decades of under-funding
and neglect, as well as by wars and natural disasters.
"It is virtually
impossible to exaggerate the importance of crop diversity. It is
a vital part of the solution to many of the world’s great
challenges, from environmental conservation to climate change
and food security," said Norway’s Minister of International
Development Erik Solheim. "Put simply, crop diversity allows us
to grow food, and this partnership with the Gates Foundation
provides an opportunity to meet a host of food security
challenges far into the future."
Homes for Orphan Crops; Seed Database for
Farmer’s Worldwide
Among the 21
priority crops covered by the Gates-funded initiative are many
"orphan crops." Particularly important to the poor, these crops
have been largely bypassed by modern plant breeding, despite the
need for high-yielding, nutritious varieties. Some orphan crops,
such as yam, cannot be grown from seeds, but need to be
cultivated from cuttings, roots, or cell cultures, making their
conservation more complex and expensive.
Therefore, the
grant will finance research into inexpensive conservation
techniques for such crops, including cassava, potato, sweet
potato, yam, taro and coconut. These new technologies are
expected to reduce conservation costs by 75 percent and improve
the security of collections of such crops.
The initiative
will also transform communications for plant-breeders and
farmers around the world. It will fund an information system
that will include 4,000,000 samples of more than 2,000 species
of more than 150 crops—amounting to 85 percent of the diversity
of all agricultural crops. The initiative will fund development
of a state-of-the-art genebank management software system, enter
at least 100,000 new samples into the database, and evaluate at
least 50 priority collections for 100 different traits—thus
uncovering hidden genetic resources.
"This is the
largest grant to support crop diversity ever made. We can now
foresee a time when orphan crops have secure homes, and when
plant breeders across Africa have access to the same crop
genetic information as do their counterparts in Europe and North
America," Fowler said.
The new initiative
also ensures that developing countries and international
agricultural research centers will be able to send at least
450,000 distinct seed samples to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Carved into the Arctic permafrost in Svalbard, Norway, this
depository of last resort for agricultural diversity is
scheduled to open in March 2008.
Finally, of the
total grant, US$15 million will go to the Trust’s endowment. Its
proceeds will be used to maintain the collections of the 21 most
important crops.
"Rescue and
salvage operations are the beginning. The Trust’s endowment will
ensure the health and availability of these collections in
perpetuity," Fowler said.
The Global Crop
Diversity Trust is the only international organization with the
global mandate of supporting the conservation and availability
of crop diversity in perpetuity. It is building an endowment,
the proceeds of which will ensure, forever, the conservation and
use of the most important crops for human food security.
The mission of the
Global Crop Diversity Trust is to ensure the conservation and
availability of crop diversity for food security worldwide.
Although crop diversity is fundamental to fighting hunger and to
the very future of agriculture, funding is unreliable and
diversity is being lost. The Trust is an independent
international organization, established through a partnership
between FAO and Bioversity International, on behalf of the
CGIAR. The Trust is the only organization working worldwide to
solve this problem. For further information, visit
www.croptrust.org.
The UN
Foundation was created in 1998 with entrepreneur and
philanthropist Ted Turner’s historic $1 billion gift to support
UN causes and activities. The UN Foundation builds and
implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s
most pressing problems and also works to broaden support for the
UN through advocacy and public outreach. The UN Foundation is a
public charity. For a complete listing of UN Foundation programs
or to learn more about the United Nations Foundation, visit
www.unfoundation.org.
Guided by the
belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation works to reduce inequities and improve lives around
the world. In developing countries, it focuses on improving
health, reducing extreme poverty, and increasing access to
technology in public libraries. In the United States, the
foundation seeks to ensure that all people have access to a
great education and to technology in public libraries. In its
local region, it focuses on improving the lives of low-income
families. Based in Seattle, the foundation is led by CEO Patty
Stonesifer and Co-chairs William H. Gates Sr., Bill Gates, and
Melinda French Gates. For further information, visit
www.gatesfoundation.org.
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