18 September 2018: An expert group established by the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) discussed the creation of an inventory of national measures for the realization of farmers’ rights. The concept of farmers’ rights aims to recognize and reward the contribution of indigenous communities and farmers to the conservation and development of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA).

The ITPGRFA calls for Parties to protect and promote farmers’ rights, including protection of traditional knowledge relevant to PGRFA, equitable benefit-sharing arising from the utilization of PGRFA, participation in decision making, and the rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed. Farmers’ rights are essential to the realization of many SDG targets, including SDG 2.3 on small-scale food producers, 2.4 on sustainable food production systems, 2.5 on genetic diversity of seeds and farmed animals, and 15.6 on fair and equitable benefit-sharing arising from genetic resource utilization.

The ITPGRFA Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers’ Rights met from 11-14 September 2018, at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy. Established by the seventh session of the ITPGRFA Governing Body, the expert group is tasked to:

• produce an inventory of national measures that may be adopted, best practices and lessons learned from the realization of farmers’ rights, as set out in Article 9 of the Treaty; and
• based on the inventory, develop options for encouraging, guiding and promoting the realization of farmers’ rights, as set out in Article 9.

The expert group developed a common template to be used for the creation of the inventory of national measures, best practices and lessons learned. The template will be made available on the ITPGRFA website, to be used by Parties and stakeholders. The expert group’s next meeting is expected to be held in the second quarter of 2019. [ITPGRFA Press Release] [Meeting Documents] [Expert Group Report] [ITPGRFA Webpage on Farmers’ Rights]