Iraq Joins the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

 As per the information on treaty site (here), The Republic of Iraq has acceded to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture on 29 September 2014, becoming the Treaty’s 133rd Contracting Party as of 27 November 2014. In addition to this, Iraq is member of a number of other international treaties and commissions, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the International Plant Protection Convention.

This step is taken by IRAQ to conserve and sustainable use their genetic resources in line with the Treaty objectives. These genetic resources may be loss due to the present situation in the country. 

Most of the time, conflicts are considered a potential threat to human being as well as plant resources. A year back, due to the conflict in the country (i.e. Syria) has forces research institute to relocate from Syria. ICARDA has opened officially in Ethiopia. In April 2013, SciDev.Net reported that although the Syrian conflict had not affected the progress of ICARDA's global research programme, it had forced the organisation to reorganize its work in certain parts of the country.

For sure, this is a step to conserve and sustainable use IRAQ's genetic resource.