MEDIA RELEASE
Released By:
The ATSE Crawford Fund
AusAID and GRDC pledges put Australia in the proud position as the major
global player in the international effort to conserve the world's diversity of
crop varieties and their wild relatives
This week's Federal Budget pledge for AusAID to support the international
effort to protect and maintain humanity's agricultural heritage was warmly
welcomed today by The Hon. Tim Fischer, Chairman of the ATSE Crawford Fund and
former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia; and Geoffrey Hawtin, Interim
Executive Secretary of the Global Conservation Trust.
'The generous provision of $16.5 million from the Australian Government for
the Global Conservation Trust indicates an unprecedented acknowledgement by
Australia of the importance of the world's crop diversity collections,' said Mr
Fischer.
'It is a visionary commitment by AusAID,' he said.
'A further significant pledge from grain producers through the Grains
Research and Development Corporation, is absolutely tremendous and puts
Australia in the proud position of being a major player in the international
effort to conserve the world's crop diversity,' he said.
After some 10,000 years of planting, ploughing, and breeding of crops for
human use, there are millions of plant samples housed in some 1,470 'genebanks',
underpinning a stable and sustainable food supply.
'Many of these collections are seriously under-funded, jeopardising the
ongoing security of agriculture and the world's ability to feed itself,' said Mr
Fischer.
'It's staggering that while the world has 250,000 species of flowering
plants, one in 12 of them (an astonishing 8%) now seem likely to disappear
before 2025,' he said.
The Global Conservation Trust seeks to create an endowment to support crop
diversity collections in perpetuity. Spearheaded by the Future Harvest Centres
of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the Trust seeks to raise
an endowment of US$260 million. Approximately US$25 million has been committed
so far by the governments of the United States, Switzerland, Egypt and Colombia,
and the United Nations and Gatsby Foundations.
'Australia is now doing its bit for maintaining the crop collections that
have so helped our primary producers,' he said.
'For example, more than 90% of wheats grown in Australia are from breeding
germplasm collected at the Mexico-based research and seed centre CIMMYT. This
alone is estimated to have yielded a net benefit to Australian farmers of some
$147 million each year,' said Mr Fischer.
'These genebanks have also proved invaluable in restoring agricultural
production in war-torn countries such as Cambodia, Afghanistan and East Timor by
providing seeds originating in those countries to farmers for planting. It is
almost certain that genebanks holding samples of Iraqi material will be called
upon to restore them to Iraq,' he said.
'The conservation of crop diversity is a little known necessity for meeting
the most fundamental need of humankind: the need for food,' said Geoffrey
Hawtin, Interim Executive Secretary of the Global Conservation Trust.
'This globally significant conservation effort is far more than a warehousing
exercise. The whole purpose of carefully collecting, documenting, studying and
conserving crop resources is to make them easier to use - and thus more useful.
Genebanks distribute hundreds of thousands of samples from their collections
each year upon request from scientists, breeders, and farmers all over the world
for their use in research and crop improvement,' he explained.
'Australia is right now the world leader in financial commitment to plant
genetic resources through the Global Conservation Trust. It also provides a
model for a public-private partnership whose goal is to improve food security
and livelihoods around the world. We can now only hope that other nations follow
Australia's lead,' said Mr Hawtin.
'The Global Conservation Trust operates within the framework of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The
Treaty, adopted in November 2001 by consensus of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organisation's 140-member nations, is the most important
international law that addresses the conservation and use of plant genetic
resources for food and agriculture,' said Mr Hawtin. Australia is a signatory to
the Treaty.
Further information on the Global Conservation Trust can be found at http://www.startwithaseed.org, and on the
Crawford Fund at www.crawfordfund.org.
For further information or to interview Mr Fischer, please contact:
Tim Fischer, Chairman, ATSE Crawford Fund, 0427 271 456
Bob Clements, Executive Director, Crawford Fund 0418 270 585
Cathy Reade, Coordinator - Public Awareness, Crawford Fund 0413 575 934
The ATSE Crawford Fund's purpose is to increase Australians' engagement in
international agricultural research, development and education for the benefit
of developing countries and Australia.