Global Seed Vault- A Step Towards Biodiversity Conservation

This blog is posted as a sequel to the article of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan entitled “Frozen Seed and Food Security” published in “The Hindu”, dated March 12, 2009.
Human interventions with environment have induced change in the climatic conditions which is leading to global warming and also posing various climatic constraints and crop failures. To deal with these environmental issues we need to prepare a contingency plan, in advance so as to solve various food security problems which are likely to arise in near future.
As seed is the most vital entity of crop production program, securing enough seeds for long term use without loosing its viability is a challenge for us. Though farm saved seeds serve an important tool for tapping the genetic diversity and also organised conservation is undertaken by the government, international and national research institutes, by establishing gene banks and gene sanctuaries and diverse crops, species and varieties are conserved in it. But we need a backup support in cases of accidental loss of diversity in traditional gene banks which may arise due to mismanagement, accident, equipment failures, funding cuts and natural disasters, destroyed by war and civil strife. Recent devastation of 11,827 hectares of cropped area leading to great loss of biodiversity in India due to Tsunami (Krishnamoorthy et. al, 2005). The UN’s latest report, titled ‘The Humanitarian Implications of Climate Change’, identifies India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia as global warming hotspot nations that are particularly vulnerable to an increase in extreme natural disasters. India will be vulnerable to extreme drought, floods and cyclones in the coming decades, says the latest United Nations report that examines possible consequences of global warming within the next 20-30 years. There arises a need for a strategic approach to cope up with irreversible losses due to these natural disasters.
As a part of this backup approach, an innovative gene bank has been devised, “The Global Seed Vault” in which the representative samples or duplicate samples of the genetic material that has been already stored in various gene banks, have been conserved. It is owned by Norwegian Government, but managed jointly by the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture, The Global Crop Diversity Trust and the Nordic Genetic Resource Centre. This seed bank is located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. It is constructed 120 metres (390 ft) inside a sandstone mountain leading to three vaults, the bank has a capacity to enable storing all existing diversity and also which is likely to arise in future. The climatic conditions of Spitsbergen such as permafrost condition and lack of tectonic activity also favor seed preservation.
Twenty-one gene banks contributed to the first deposit of seeds into the Seed Vault in January-February 2008. These gene banks included international gene banks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), other international and regional gene banks, national gene banks, and a non-governmental organization (NGO). Primary funding of the trust came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, Switzerland, and Sweden, though funding has been received from a wide variety of sources including four developing countries i.e. Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India.
On 25th February 2008, at the creation of the Global Seed Vault, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf commented that it is “one of the most innovative and impressive acts in the service of humanity”. “The wealth that is being safeguarded in Svalbard will be the global insurance to address future challenges,” he added. Dr Diouf addressed a conference in Svalbard held in connection with the inauguration of the Seed Vault. FAO’s International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture the treaty, an international legal framework for conserving and accessing crop diversity, has now been ratified by 116 countries. The Global Crop Diversity Trust, hosted by FAO, also provides operating funds for the seed vault.
Once the need for long term conservation of existing genotypes has been recognized, efforts are required to meet the global food demands and these genotypes can be employed for crop improvement programs. Major biotechnological and conventional breeding techniques employ genes, which come from the genetic base available and if this base will not be there, research and development activities will be hampered. Therefore, obsolete varieties and land races should also be conserved because they can serve as a potential source of various genes for example, genes for quality, biotic and abiotic resistance and yield contributing traits and adaptability. Gene transfers can be done to improve the popular varieties lacking in these traits. In the selection process for development and promotion of high yielding varieties precious genes are lost. We need new genes against new strains and races of pathogen. The possible threats from recently identified Ug 99 strain of wheat rust from Uganda affecting wheat crop in many countries of Asia could lead to decelerating levels of food security.
Many Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) and civil societies, are voicing concerns about the security of conserved material and possible use by the developed countries or companies in commercial activities of seeds. It is essential to develop suitable security measures and systematize so that seeds stored in the Seed Vault remain the property of the depositing country or institution. It is emphasized that no change of ownership, for, any seeds accepted for storage at the Vault is there and material stored is freely available under the terms of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. In the present system this safeguard is being done by storing seeds in closed boxes, same as the locker system in banks called as the “Black Box” system and remain inaccessible to anyone else.
India is very rich in genetic diversity in terms of both flora and fauna. In compliance with the WTO, TRIPS agreement, Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act has been designed which allows the protection of plant varieties, hybrids and transgenic varieties. Currently seeds of varieties are being conserved at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi, though a well established system. But in the long run we need several more of such seed banks to ensure easy access to the protected material for research and development purposes and also serve as a backup plan. These facilities should be accessible to all including researchers, farmers and all others in rural livelihoods.
Based on the concept of Norwegian seed vault, there is need to establish seed banks for our biodiversity, and meristem banks in case of asexually propagating species. Several rare medicinal and aromatic plants, which are of great importance can not be stored as seed due to lack of viability and poor seed set, meristem banks serve the purpose. In the changing patterns of climate and so, there is continuous threat for possible extinction of rare species. Dr. M.S. Swaminathan also suggested for the establishment of a “Conservation Consortium” in India, in his article published in “The Hindu” recently.
Adoption of such technologies in an organized manner in India can prove to be a boon for agricultural sector. Though establishment of seed vault has paved the way for plant conservation but we are yet to follow the path and develop infrastructure for the same, this would require a specialized skill set and trained professionals and would also be one of the major contributions for the development of agriculture, finally of the country.

Reference: Krishnamoorthy; K., Harichandrakumar; K. T., Krishna Kumari; A. and P. K. Das (2005). Years of Life Lost and Productivity Loss due to Tsunami in India. Current Science.89: 5-10.

Think before you eat?

This post is about a book I had chance to read recently, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” written by Michael Pollan and is one of the New York Times bestseller. This would for sure raise many questions in your mind about your eating habits as has risen in my mind. I had never thought that we are eating only one crop again and again in one form or the other. Being an Indian we still have traditional eating habits related to morality and medicinal value; also it has been mentioned in our Ayurveda that “We are what we eat”. We are also diverting towards modern eating habits of taking more of the processed food in our diets and this is the major concern raised in my mind after reading this book.
An omnivore can eat just about anything nature has provided him but many of the foods offered may be poisonous and can even kill us. So, the author is always confused about, what should he eat? Author talks about the America’s national eating disorder, how they suddenly shifted towards meat and lying off bread and pasta, bankrupting dozens of bakeries and noodle firms. The extraordinary abundance of choice of food in America complicates the whole problem of what to eat? He thinks that like every other creature on earth, humans also take part in food chains though we modify the food by way of various technologies. He talks about the three principle food chains i.e. the industrial, the organic and the hunter gatherer. Each of these food chains includes a plant photosynthesizing energy to provide food at the end of the chain.
I like the industrial food chain most that focuses on a single plant: Zea Mays and would like to share my ideas about it. The journey starts when the author visits a supermarket and only thing which he finds close to nature is the section of fruits and vegetables. The description of the entire scenario has been given so beautifully that one could almost visualize the scene. This supermarket was a kind of biodiversity hub where one could find hundreds of different edible species brought from different parts of the globe. Author started to follow the industrial food chain starting from this point to a wide variety of places, though at the very end of each of the food chains he found himself in the farm fields of American Corn Belt. He came to a conclusion that American supermarket with a wide variety of choices had a remarkably narrow biological foundation of Zea Mays, popularly known as corn. “Corn is used almost in every food we or the animals eat, even in making sodas, fruit drinks, beer, coffee whitener, soups, syrups etc. About 45,000 eatables available in the supermarket are made of corn and every year 17,000 new ones are added.”
Author visited a farmer called George Naylor who was growing only corn and soybean while his grandfather used to grow a variety of crops along with animal rearing. Although the product of the field could feed 129 Americans but it was not equipped to support 4 members of Naylor’s family and lot of food items had to be imported. Owing to corn-corn and corn-soybean cropping systems and mechanized farming need for farm labor had also dwindled and people had migrated from that area in search of work.
Pollan also goes further to explain about how a virtual flood of cheap corn forces a farmer to think over lines of producing more. The way market requirement and government policies that are focused towards diverting corn for food processing compels a farmer to produce only corn are also elaborated to great extent.
Pollan found that “the golden river of American commodity corn passes through a tiny number of corporate hands”. The two companies Cargill and ADM together buys nearly a third of total corn produced in America. This corn after being milled, processed, exported and passed through the guts of cows, chickens and pigs, turning it into meat. Though cow is not by nature a corn eater, but due to surplus are fed corn, disposing off the American corn surplus. It has many adverse effects on the animal health as trapping of gas in the stomach, acidic stomach which is neutral in cattle, thus the animal feeds all rubbish and dirt further causing diarrhea, ulcers etc.
Pollan says that what doesn’t pass through gut of animals will pass through the “wet mills” to be processed in innumerable food science products by companies like general mills, Mc Donald’s and Coca-Cola. The starch in the corn is the major contribution to the industrial food chain, with an abundance of carbohydrate molecules. Food technology today has enabled scientists to construct any processed food from carbohydrates supplied from corn, protein from soybean and fats from any other plant. Technology has also allowed processing of wastes from one process to be used as raw material for yet another processed food or any other application, for example corn syrup which is a byproduct of processing is a cheap substitute of cane sugar. In the end only waste- water is discharged as waste.
The fact that processing adds self life and value to the food items is agreed upon by the author but he also mentions that this has also tempted people to consume more of a single plant. Another point which cannot be neglected is that flow of money is diverted from farmer to processor.
After being processed in various forms, corn moves to restaurants in attractive colors, shapes and packages, which finally reach us. McDonalds, KFC and other popular outlets supply consumer’s with pizza’s, burger’s, nuggets, French fries and many more food items all made from corn, which may be present as emulsifiers, binders, fillers, syrups, sweeteners or in other forms. But these food items also contain some synthetic ingredients which come from petroleum refineries or chemical plants, which are carcinogenic, mutagenic, tumerigen, reproductive effectors and if consumed at high concentration may even lead to death. To eat corn directly is to consume all the energy in the corn but when corn is used as animal feed 90% of its energy is lost. Growing more and more corn has depleted soil nutrients, reduced quality of water, reduced biodiversity and has degenerated soil health.
So, what do you think about this plant? It all depends on your position in the food chain. Corn has benefitted neither the farmer who grows it is nor the consumer who consumes it. But to a food processor this is the plant need to be worshiped. Corn is present in all the fast foods that are served and eaten in a flash. You are not totally satisfied and want to eat more, in spite of a full stomach. Thus, corn food chain offers not exactly cheap food but cheap source of calories in attractive forms. However in long run consumer pays high price for these cheap calories ending up with obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Consuming processed corn foods, affects not only you and your family, but the environment and most importantly the farmer who is also at a loss by growing it. I think it’s high time that we should open our eyes and see that consuming processed food is no symbol of social status as some people perceive it and absolutely nothing can replace the traditional foods. There was a reason why those foods had been there for centuries and there is again a very strong reason why these foods should be in the forefront again. Apart from serious issues concerning health there is a major problem of permanent loss of biodiversity.
We should therefore look forward towards maintaining a balance of our traditional eating habits with that of modern day processed food. Awareness and encouragement is thus needed for conserving our biodiversity in available food and traditional ways of eating. Several ways can be thought of doing so and one of them can be celebration of food festivals, for example The Yam festival, Ugadi Food Festival, Legacies of the Nizams - Food Festival, etc. These festivals have been able to create awareness amongst people about traditional food. This could also ensure a variety in the crops we consume, as narrowing down the choices available in foods would never prove beneficial. After reading this entire article do you still think that consuming more of processed foods would be a good idea in long run?

All about commons- By Gutam Sridhar

Patents and Copyrights under Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) had tried to block the further innovation and research and development. The researchers who are engaged creation of new knowledge had started experiencing difficulties in the continuing their research and development activities. They were looking for gaining access to research tools which are protected by patent rights. The patent laws in the world does not have any significant research exemption.

To address this issue, The “Commons” have started to organize themselves and put forth alternatives for the sharing the created knowledge and works. The “Commons” is derived from Old French comun and Latin commūnis which means “‘common, public, general’” and refers to resources that are collectively owned from land to software (Wikipedia).

Creative Commons' “Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally” is the one which had a wide impact in the knowledge dissemination. It has become popular in creative works of arts. Now, Creative Commons (CC) provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators to easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry and can use CC to change their copyright terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved." And now CC support open access for scientific literature “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions (Peter Suber)”. The US National Institutes of Health now requires open access to funded research. CSIR in India also now adopted the policy of Open Access. Many of the Indian authors are publishing their articles in open access journals and ensuring their work is cited more by making it openly. And most major journals have granted authors the right to self-publish versions of their peer-reviewed papers.

The Science Commons (SC) is the another project of the Creative Commons. It applies the Creative Commons philosophy and methodology to the world of scientific research. SC aims to clear the legal and technical pathway for accelerating discovery worldwide with its open licenses for copyrighted works, building open source platforms for knowledge management and data visualization.

The CAMBIA – BiOS' “Protected Commons” provides a secure platform where discussion concerning an invention or improvement can take place without the invalidation of future patent applications, or the misappropriation of information by third parties. CAMBIA's Dr. Richard Jefferson who has given shared his discovery of enabling technology “GUS gene” (beta-glucuronidase gene), an indicator for gene expression, for the research and development in biomedical and agricultural biotechnology. By placing patented and patentable technology in a protected commons, patents can be exploited for enabling use of technology by others instead of preventing it. Under this, both patent owners and licensee users of the technology share improvements whether patented or not. Owners of improvements may patent them under confidential, non-public disclosure of improvements under the agreement in legal condition of maintaining the improvements accessible to all other licensees. Thus an incentive to protect the technology for open use. Under BiOS agreements, technology is made available in royalty-free for use in research or in creating products, by anyone in any country, based on a legally binding agreement. The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) of India's CSIR is also under the Protected Commons.

Now the “Knowldege commons” which believes that the knowledge is for the public and they are free to use and to build upon.

I believe that these commons models shall lead to achieve the scientific freedom and openness which will again lead to more discoveries for benefit of mankind.

As Posted By: Gutam Sridhar

Why does India need TKDL ? A word on our heritage

On 2nd February 2009, the Government of India signed an agreement with European Patent office (EPO) to access its Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).This is indeed a major step in India’s efforts towards its efforts for authenticating the tremendous wealth in this area.

The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) has been created by National Institute of Science communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), a CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research). It contains 24 million pages of Traditional Knowledge search database that translated text from Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu and Tamil to English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. These traditional knowledge data are taken from Ayurveda (India’s traditional medical treatment), Unani (a system believed to have to come to India via ancient Greece), Siddha (one of India’s oldest health therapies from the south) and Yoga (considered as traditional medicine). India through TKDL is capable of protecting nearly 203,800 medical formulations as “public property” free for any one to use but no one to sell as “brand”.

This creation of a database is an evolutionary step to protect our traditional knowledge as well as for enhancing the negotiating strength of India at international forum. It can prevent multinational companies from unfair practice of commercializing traditional treatments. Several reports over the past few years, suggest that about 285 medicinal plants have been granted patents and about 200 to 500 such patents are granted every year due to lack of access to the documented knowledge in the public domain. With the signing of this agreement EPO can use TKDL during prior art search for all its patent applications. It is expected that as an immediate outcome through this signing, at least 40 patent applications in Europe are likely to get rejected, which would have otherwise granted.

TKDL is a model for other countries to protect their traditional knowledge from misappropriation. This is the time; we can hope it is end of bio-piracy and grant of patent based on traditional knowledge.

TKDL is created mainly for the traditional medicine system of our country. Similarly efforts must be made to develop databases for various other traditional knowledge in the field of agriculture, biodiversity, biosources used for food preparation, handicrafts etc. Several Governmental and non-governmental agencies are undertaking projects to documenting the local traditional knowledge. Much hope lies in finding several new databases in more facets of traditional knowledge in future.