New Delhi, May 21 -- Civil society organisations in Asia have made yet another attempt to ensure that the multilateral system for benefit sharing under the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGFRA) is not watered down.

As delegates from many countries in Asia gather in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to prepare for the next ITPGFRA meeting, civil society organisations have sent a letter to the governments of these countries, requesting them to reject the proposed amendments to the Treaty.

The proposal is to expand the scope of the Multilateral System (MLS) for access and benefit sharing of the Plant Treaty from the current 64 crops to all plant genetic resources. This would lay open all 350,000 known sp...