ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the crop-related payment established by Article 6.11 of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA), as adopted by the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA or the Treaty). It argues that this option, based on a proposal by the African group, might be attractive for recipients and important to generate funding for benefit sharing under the Treaty. The ITPGRFA has been developed ‘in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity’ (CBD) 1 (see Annex 1 of this volume for the list of all Commission and Treaty negotiating meetings). Accordingly, the Treaty recognizes ‘the sovereign rights of States over their own plant genetic resources for food and agriculture’, and that the ‘authority to determine access to those resources rests with national governments and is subject to national legislation’. 2 The ITPGRFA sets out as one of its principal objectives to ensure ‘the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits’ arising out of the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture’ 3 (see Annex 3 of this book for details on the main provisions of the Treaty).