The Union Budget presented on February 1, 2025 had an interesting announcement. The government stated its intention to establish a second Gene Bank in the country with the lofty goal of ensuring genetic resources and food security for future generations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also pronounced that the second Gene Bank “will strengthen India’s position as a leader in global biodiversity conservation” and expanded to continue that “this initiative reflects India’s commitment to preserving agricultural biodiversity, securing the future of food, and supporting sustainable farming systems”. All this is good news. But there’s a catch. The Budget announcement also mentioned that the Second Gene Bank “will provide conservation support to both public and private sectors for genetic resources”. Does this mean that the second National Gene Bank will provide a distinct space for genetic material collected and conserved by the private sector? Before we get to understanding the catch, let us understand what Gene Banks are and why they are becoming increasingly important. A Gene Bank is a place where genes are stored, most often of plants. These are usually in the form of seeds but can also include other types of genetic material like cuttings, tissues of plants that are grown by multiplying vegetative parts, as in potato and even pollen. India maintains the genetic diversity of animals and fish too in “animal gene banks” and “fish gene banks”, but these are of a different kind. Here we are talking largely of seed banks. Now in the new age, there are banks that store purified DNA samples and DNA sequences. Most Gene Banks are refrigerated chambers where seeds can be stored and kept viable for long periods of time for use later. Another approach is to establish Gene Banks in permafrost regions where the ice never melts. Here the cooling function is natural and obviates the expensive use of electrical refrigeration except for a backup. The most famous permafrost Gene Bank was established inside the Arctic Circle at Svalbard in Norway in 2008. Also called the Seed Vault, the Svalbard Bank is carved 150 meters deep into the mountain. India also built a permafrost Gene Bank in Chang La in Ladakh at an altitude of 17,585 feet. Temperatures here range from minus 4°C to minus 40°C, with humidity below 20 per cent, thus providing optimal conditions for long-term conservation of seeds. Commissioned in 2010, this Gene Bank stores over 5,000 seed samples of vegetables and high-altitude crops. There are other kinds of Gene Banks. Field Banks are where a number of varieties of crops or trees are grown year for year thus conserving the genetic material in live form. This has the advantage of the genetic material of the crops and trees adapting to changes in the environment. This ensures that they remain viable in the future of altered environmental conditions. The Gene Campaign had developed the concept of Zero Energy Community Gene/Seed Banks, where seeds are stored at ambient temperatures so there is no expenditure on electricity for cooling. Seed samples are to be grown out at regular intervals to refresh the seed and expose it to the environment. This ensures that the process of adaptation continues with each grow out cycle and the seeds in the bank remain viable in altered environments. Why have Gene Banks become so important: Gene Banks are crucial to the food and nutritional security of all people. There are more than 1,700 national and international Gene Banks worldwide that hold collections of food crops for safe-keeping to face the ever-increasing challenges like climate change, civil war, new diseases, etc. Confronted with the dramatic changes in the climate and the disruption it is causing in agricultural systems, accessing seeds from the gene banks that can adapt to the altered conditions becomes crucial. Private sector in conservation of genetic diversity: Now to the concerns relating to private sector involvement in the conservation of genetic diversity. The genetic resources of any country belong almost exclusively to its indigenous and farming communities. They have developed, used and conserved them over generations and thus have ownership rights over them. Collection and conservation of genetic material has traditionally been done by the public sector and its agencies and the Gene Banks exist in a sort of “Of the People, For the People” mode. And so, it should remain. Giving the private sector a role in conservation is not warranted and raises legitimate questions about conflicts and claims of ownership, exclusivity and potential IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) challenges. In any case, the private sector already has unfettered access to materials in the gene bank, within the framework of certain rules and regulations, benefit sharing being an important one. This international convention states that when the private sector uses genetic material to develop products from which they earn profits, they must share a certain amount of that profit with the National Gene Fund. The material belongs to the farming community and its use for profit entitles them to a share. It may be added that although the private sector has been accessing genetic material freely, its contribution to the National Gene Fund has been meagre at best. This in itself is reason enough not to expand the involvement of the private sector. A fair partnership in the use of the people’s genetic resources has been provided in the national laws after much deliberation by Indian experts and parliamentarians. There is no need to change that, at least not without a comprehensive and transparent national debate on the subject.Dr Suman Sahai is a scientist trained in genetics and the founder-chairperson of the Gene Campaign, a research and policy organisation working on food and livelihoods
Source link
