feature (IPS) - A new convention that discourages private crop patents will breathe new life into agricultural research in developing countries, where subsistence farming remains the norm, say experts.

The object of their optimism is the keenly awaited International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, agreed last week in Rome by delegates from 116 countries.

"What the treaty will do primarily is facilitate the free flow of genetic material to plant breeders who have found that the rush to patent has limited their access in recent years," says Peter Rosset co-director of the U.S.-based non-governmental organisation Food First.

"When breeders feel that material is patentable, they won't share it. The hope is that as a result of the treaty, people will once again share these genetic resources,'' he adds. ''This is a boon to public sector plant breeders and to farmers and we hope it will somewhat put the brakes on patenting by private companies."

The agreement seeks to shield a list of food crops from patenting although, according to Rosset, heavy US lobbying succeeded in watering down the pact's language so it amounts to less than an outright prohibition on patenting of critical food crops. Ultimately, the United States and Japan abstained from voting on the treaty.

Global biodiversity

Nevertheless, says Ian Johnson, chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the treaty is a definite safeguard mechanism for global biodiversity.

"Plant breeders all over the world rely on existing diversity to create new varieties of plants with higher yields and increased resistance to pests and diseases, while for many small farmers in developing countries, diversity is the basis of food security and income," says Johnson, who also is a vice president at the World Bank.

The treaty comes at a critical moment, according to its supporters. Issues such as food security are being eclipsed by counter-terrorism and international financial institutions are preoccupied with recession.

Aid for agriculture has been falling for well over a decade, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Wealthy countries cut their contributions by 15 percent during the 1990s and multilateral lenders like the World Bank trimmed theirs by 40 percent.

Genetic resources

The new convention, however, offers farmers and public agencies better access to genetic resources that could improve crop yields, diversity, and resistance to pests, drought, and disease. The treaty also will promote improve natural resource management in poor nations, where the FAO estimates some 835 million people live in hunger.

"We think it is good that there now is a treaty, though a number of issues have been left unresolved and in some areas it is weaker than we would have hoped," says Rosset.

Farmers' favour

Among these weaknesses, he says, the treaty would only help to the extent that unresolved issues of farmers' rights and intellectual property rights are settled in the farmers' favour and uphold the principle that public resources should not be patented.

"That would help guarantee the food security of poor farmers and of indigenous peoples," Rosset asserts. "If, however, these issues are resolved the wrong way, then much of the potential benefit of the treaty will be lost."

Although the agreement also establishes a funding strategy, support for the gene banks of the world remains a problem, according to Geoffrey Hawtin of the CGIAR-supported International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI).

"The treaty calls on countries and CGIAR-supported centres to maintain genetic resources in perpetuity," Hawtin says in a statement. "The challenge is to mobilise financial resources and create an endowment to ensure these precious resources are kept in viable form well into the future."

The US angered activists by lobbying against portions of the treaty that it said would threaten intellectual property rights and thus endanger innovation and investment. Rosset, however, says he considers patenting a ''form of shameless privatisation'' and sees the US stance on the treaty as ''one more example of irresponsible pro-private industry behaviour.''

CGIAR, an association of 58 public and private institutions, supports a network of 16 agricultural research centres worldwide. It played a major role in formulating the treaty.