05/07/2013

The Republic of Serbia has ratified the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and has become a Contracting Party as of 2 July 2013, bringing the total number of Contracting Parties to 129.

“We welcome the Republic of Serbia as our 129th Contracting Party,” said Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the Governing Body of the Treaty “and we look forward to developing a close collaboration to strengthen conservation and the sustainable use of plant genetic resources in Serbia, and to facilitating its contribution to the Treaty as an international global mechanism governing food crops worldwide”.

Serbia signed the Treaty in 2002 and ratified it this year. Becoming a Contracting Party will grant Serbia a number of advantages, including facilitated access to a global gene pool of more than 1.6million plants that belong to the most important food crops. Additionally, Serbia will be eligible to submit project proposals to the Benefit-sharing Fund of the Treaty, to participate in technology transfer and capacity building programs, and to be represented at the meetings of the Governing Body of the Treaty, starting with the Fifth Session in September this year in Oman.

Crop Diversity

Located in southeastern Europe, Serbia and uses approximately 233 plants species in commercial agricultural production (without flowers), including 185 species of field crops and 48 species of fruits. Major food crops in Serbia include maize, wheat, barley, oat and rye, and major industrial crops include sunflower, soybean, sugar beet, oil turnip, tobacco, industrial pepper and hop.

In addition to acceding to the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Serbia is member of a number of other international treaties and commissions, including the Convention of Biological Diversity, the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the Bern Convention and the CITES Convention.