Sharing the benefits of plant genetic diversity: the Benefit-sharing Fund

In the last century, parts of the world’s food crop diversity disappeared forever reducing coping strategies and resources needed to grow crops that are more resilient, more productive, and nutritious. Small-scale farmers, especially those most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity, greatly depend on diverse seeds to ensure their livelihoods. The Benefit-sharing Fund is a multilateral Fund established under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to support projects in developing countries, addressing food security, adaptation to climate change, and agricultural biodiversity. Since its establishment in 2009, the Fund has worked in 67 developing countries to enable small-scale farmers, scientists and breeders to use and conserve genetic diversity and tap into the Treaty’s global genepool of millions of different genetic material to undertake research and develop varieties particularly adapted to socio-environmental conditions.