The Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR) has circulated a publication compiling five studies, which provide an overview of the conceptual basis for assigning monetary and non-monetary values to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and constitute the first steps towards a projection of benefit flows over time.
September 2013: The Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGR) has circulated a publication compiling five studies, which provide an overview of the conceptual basis for assigning monetary and non-monetary values to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and constitute the first steps towards a projection of benefit flows over time. The publication was launched during the fifth session of the ITPGR Governing Body (GB 5), held from 24-28 September 2013, in Muscat, Oman.
Edited by N. Moeller and C. Stannard and titled ‘Identifying Benefit Flows: Studies on the Potential Monetary and Non-monetary Benefits Arising from the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,’ the volume is published in connection with a research project carried out with the financial support of the Government of Australia.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of both the conceptual bases for assigning economic values (monetary and non-monetary) to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the existing methodologies for establishing such values. Chapter 2 comprises an economic analysis of the values of global seed production and their distribution across crops, regions and countries, in order to provide estimates for potential monetary flows, as well as the overall value levels used in the mathematical model of the next chapter.
Chapter 3 constitutes the core of the book and presents a model of potential flows of income into the Benefit-Sharing Fund. Chapter 4 develops and tests informatics methodologies that make possible large-scale computational analyses of patent and other databases. Its aim is to assess the commercial use of material brought under the terms and conditions of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), and to value and quantify non-monetary benefits. The Annex presents the results of a preliminary expert consultation of the plant-breeding community by means of interviews and questionnaire surveys. [Publication: Identifying Benefit Flows: Studies on the Potential Monetary and Non-monetary Benefits Arising from the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture][Presentation of the book at an ITPGR GB 5 side-event][IISD RS Coverage of ITPGR GB 5]