The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has reconstituted the Expert Committee on Agro-biodiversity for a period of one year. The committee has been set up under Section 13(1) of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, to provide expert guidance on the conservation and sustainable use of agro-biodiversity, and on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) and related matters.
Eminent agricultural scientist and Padma Shri awardee Dr P.L. Gautam, a former Chairman of both the NBA and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPV&FRA), has been appointed as the Chairman of the committee. The Chairman of the PPV&FRA will serve as the Co-Chairman.
The Expert Committee on Agro-biodiversity has been an important advisory body of the NBA since 2005, and has been reconstituted periodically to address emerging issues relating to agricultural genetic resources. Over the years it has played a key role in implementing the Biodiversity Act, including on matters connected to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), access and benefit-sharing issues arising from the export of crop seeds and animal embryos, and collaborative research projects involving biological resources under Section 5 of the Act.
The reconstituted committee includes senior representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, ICAR, the national genetic resource bureaus, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, the National Innovation Foundation and NALSAR. It will examine seed-sector issues, review guidelines for international collaborative research, and suggest measures to conserve threatened indigenous crop varieties and livestock breeds. The committee will support India's updated NBSAP Targets 4 and 13 and contribute to SDG 2, SDG 13 and SDG 15.