Normally Traded Commodities under Biodiversity Act- Reconsideration Indispensable

Ministry of Environment and Forest issued a Draft Gazette Notification seeking comments from the public and interested parties where they have enlisted 426 plant species /plant parts, the preamble of which reads as follows:"In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 40 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (18 of 2003), and in supersession of the previous notification, the Central Government, in consultation with the National Biodiversity Authority, hereby declares that the provisions of this Act shall not apply to the following biological resources specified in column (3) of the table, provided they are traded as commodities and subject to terms enumerated in the explanatory notes as given below. The source of the biological resource (cultivated/wild) and the part being traded as commodity along with other details shall be declared by the trader/exporter as per a self-declaration form given in the annexure, a copy of which shall be submitted to the National Biodiversity Authority."

Here, I would like to quote Section 40 of the BD Act refers to NTC as under: “Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Central Government may, in consultation with the NBA, by notification in its official gazette, declare that the provisions of the Act shall not apply to any items, including biological resources, as normally traded commodities”.

In the proposed list of MOEF; 426 biological resources/ their plant parts or whole plant; in cereals and Millets only grains and whole plants are included and exempted from the purview of National Biodiversity Authority in case of exports. Whereas, in case of Pulses, Oilseeds, Fibre Crops, Forage Crops (for some species) seeds are considered as Normally Traded Commodities.

I strongly feel NBA should review the draft for amendments the seeds of Cereals and Millets in the list of Normally Traded Commodities which would benefit Indian seed industry to operate international business in a conducive environment, I present my justification as below:

·         As per the Proceedings of the Meeting of Brainstorming Session and National Consultation on Issues related to Normally Traded Commodities On April 13 and 14, 2012 At Hotel Residency Towers, Chennai. “‘Normal trading’ means that it is traded in significant quantities, the level of significance will depend upon the type of commodity and should be defined in the proposed database”.

o   As evident in the data presented in Table 1 below, seeds of major cereals such as Rice and Maize are exported extensively i.e. considering an average of last four years 10144.38 ‘000 Kg of Rice and 19462.69 ‘000 Kg of Maize has been exported. Exports of Millets started recently and significant quantites have been exported in last two years, it is expected to gain pace in near future as per the trends and prevailing market situations.

o   As compared to the export data of seeds of those species which are considered for inclusion under the purview of Normally Traded Commodities in the Draft Notification by Ministry of environment, forests and climate change (Table 1 and 2); the quantites of seeds exported for Cereal and Millet seeds are significant  and at par.

o   As evident from the export value of major cereals and millets (Table 1.2); the share percentage of the overall exports and value of seeds export is at par with the exempted commodities.

Table 1. Yearwise quantity of Seed Export of Different Crops for last five years[1]:

SN	Crop	Crop Category	HC Code	Status of NTC received/ not as per Draft Notification by Ministry of environment, forests and climate change	Exported Quantity in Thousands (Kg)
					2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015	2015-2016 (Till July 2015)
1.	Rice (Oryza sativa)	Cereal	10061010	Not NTC	9218.84	12975.78	10209.91	8173	2762
2.	Maize (Zea mays)	Cereal	10051000	Not NTC	18127.89	12384.43	24264.43	23,074	327.56
3.	Millet (Pennisetum glaucum)	Cereal	10082120	Not NTC	NA	NA	25535.76	19464	4496.96
4.	Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)	Fibre	12072100 (other oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, whether or not broken)	NTC	NA	NA	547.19	552	149
5.	Sesamum (Sesamum indicum)	Oilseed	12074010	NTC	49526.38	39674.53	35817.63	36286.70	4251.84
6.	Mustard (Brassica juncea)	Oilseed	12075010	NTC	2814.01	2313.55	1184.03	1617.21	146.86

Table 2. Yearwise quantity of Seed Export of Different Crops for last three years^[1]:

SN	Crop	Crop Category	HC Code	Status of NTC received/ not as per Draft Notification by Ministry of environment, forests and climate change	Value of Exported Commodities in INR Lakhs and Percentage share of India’s total exports
					2012-2013	% share	2013-2014	% share	2014-2015	% share
1.	Rice (Oryza sativa)	Cereal	10061010	Not NTC	13129.24	0.0080	7272.31	0.0038	11284.65	0.0059
2.	Maize (Zea mays)	Cereal	10051000	Not NTC	8590.16	0.0053	17313.11	0.0091	17847.17	0.0094
3.	Millet (Pennisetum glaucum)	Cereal	10082120	Not NTC	-	-	5733.26	0.0030	4400.97	0.0023
4.	Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)	Fibre	12072100 (other oil seeds and oleaginous fruits, whether or not broken)	NTC	-	-	154.14	0.0001	159.97	0.0001
5.	Sesamum (Sesamum indicum)	Oilseed	12074010	NTC	36646.87	0.0224	45904.04	0.0241	45148.95	0.0238

·         For export purposes; in case of seeds only the domesticated and widely cultivated species of major cereals and millets are utilized which are advanced hybrids/ varieties resulting from extensive research and deveopment and are commercially potential, bulk exports are not carried out for wild strains, land races, wild cultivars.

o   In ITC (HS), 2012 Schedule 2 – Export Policy, General Notes to Export Policy – Goods under Restrictions; In cereals only export of wild variety of wheat and paddy seed is restricted whereas Rice, Wheat and Maize (corn) of seed quality is free from any trade restrictions.

o   These species/ cultivars are also not covered under vulnerable, near threatened, endangered and critically endangered categories.

o   A considerable percentage of these seeds are exported for trialing and research purposes, this category also comprise of advanced research material.

o   Therefore, in case of exports of major cereals and millets there is no risk such as overexploitation of wild varieties/ land races/ local cultivars which could push these species to the category of endangerment or uninformed sharing of indegenous cultivars and associated traditional knowledge.

·         As per the Proceedings of the Meeting of Brainstorming Session and National Consultation on Issues related to Normally Traded Commodities On April 13 and 14, 2012 At Hotel Residency Towers, Chennai. In TECHNICAL SESSION-2, where characteristics of NTCs or NTACs are defined, referring to point number (g) which states “Endangered species may be excluded from the NTC definition; while exotics need to be treated as NTCs”.

o   Here, in case of Maize, it is believed to be originated from The South Mexican and Central American Centre whereas Pearlmillet from a defused belt stretching from western Sudan to Senegal Harlan (1971) and Harlan et al. (1975), India is only considered as the secondary centre of diversity (Brunken et. al., 1977).

o   Whereas, in case of Rice (Oryza sativa L.), the genetic diversity of various traits in local cultivars of rice is greatest in the area extending from Assam in India and Bangladesh to Myanmar and northern Thailand, and to Yunnan Province in China (Oka, 1988)[3]. Thus, rice also cannot be considered as solely indigenous as the origin is reported to be shared amongst many Asian countries. Thus, as per the aforementioned criteria seeds of major cereals and millet crop species can be included under the purview of NTC’s and prior approval from NBA for exports can be exempted.

·         Of more than 50 000 edible plant species in the world, just 15 crop plants provide 90 percent of the world's food energy intake, with three rice, maize and wheat - making up two-thirds of this. These three are the staples of over 4 000 million people. Rice feeds almost half of humanity.

o   Whereas, millets have been one of the important staples in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa for centuries. These crops are still the principal sources of energy, protein, vitamins and minerals for millions of the poorest people in these regions. Millets are grown in harsh environments where other crops grow or yield poorly. They are grown with limited water resources and usually without application of any fertilizers or other inputs by a multitude of small-holder farmers in many countries. Therefore, and because they are mostly consumed by disadvantaged groups, they are often referred to as "coarse grain" or "poor people's crops". They are not usually traded in the international markets or even in local markets in many countries. The farmers seldom, therefore, have an assured market in the event of surplus production[4]. Upliftment of Millets in terms of research & development and trading is need of the hour. Considering the food security issues arising out of regulating these crop species, seeds of these crops should be allowed a free trade and should be provided the status of Normally Traded Commodities.

[1] Export Import Data Bank Version 7.2 Tradestat by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India

[2] Export Import Data Bank Version 7.2 Tradestat by Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India

[3] CONSENSUS DOCUMENT ON THE BIOLOGY OF ORYZA SATIVA (RICE) (ENV/JM/MONO(99)26) Dated 06-Dec-1999, Series on Harmonization of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology No. 14 published by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

[4] Dimensions of Need- An Atlas of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, FAO Corporate Document Repository

World at war over sharing of genetic resources

One might have already heard of the battles India has fought over Neem, Turmeric and Basmati but that is only one of a million examples of the war for access to genetic resources that the developing world is fighting. The agricultural and plant diversity of countries like India too has always made happy pickings for bio-prospectors -- specialists looking for rare species that contain some property worth commercializing. The pharmaceutical and biotech industry for one depends highly on the genetic resources that are found in higher density in the tropical and poorer countries than in the temperate and richer nations of the world. But when the pharma giant from the rich country gets hold of the specimen and turns it into a hot selling patented commodity -- say an anti-cancer drug -- it doesn't share a fair share of the millions it earns with the people who protected it in the first place. In many cases, these are the people who understand the medicinal or other special properties of the resource. Take the case of just the formalized traditional medicines in India. So far over two lakh formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga have been documented into the digital library. About 2,000 patents related to the Indian System of Medicine are granted every year in the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and other overseas patent offices. Evidently the battle lines between the rich and the developing countries are drawn as deep as in the climate talks but the roles have got reversed.

When it comes to their new clean technologies, the rich countries may be dead-set against easing intellectual property rights for poor countries but at the UN talks on bio-diversity they are fighting tooth and nail to make the IPR rules loose enough to commercialize the traditional knowledge of countries like India.

---

[1] The Times of India- Hyderabad - Times Nation , 05 Jan 2010, Page 7, Nitin Sethi / TNN