TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
25 November 2025
Third World Network

FAO: UN Rapporteur on the right to food calls for Seed Treaty to address DSI-induced biopiracy

Geneva, 25 November (TWN) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food has called for the inclusion of digital sequence information (DSI) within the scope of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), also known as the Seed Treaty.

This call is made in a letter to Alwin Kopse, Chair of the 11th session of the Governing Body (GB) of the ITPGRFA, which is taking place on 24-29 November in Lima, Peru.

The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, requested Kopse to share the letter with the GB Bureau, all Contracting Parties to the ITPGRFA as well as agriculture ministers and delegates attending the high-level segment of the session.

The letter states that the current negotiating texts proposing amendments to the ITPGRFA do not ensure that DSI derived from plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) is brought under the scope of the Treaty. “This could, in turn, risk weakening farmers’ and peasants’ rights protections by turning the ITPGRFA into a potential facilitating tool for misappropriation (more commonly also referred to as ‘biopiracy’) by corporations, contrary to the spirit of the Treaty.”

Further, the letter states that the absence of clear rules on regulation of DSI “may enable private entities to obtain intellectual property rights over digital representations of PGRFA contained in the MLS [the Multilateral System governing access and benefit sharing under the ITPGRFA]. This situation could undermine the facilitated access to those PGRFA and the equitable sharing of benefits, and limit farmers’ traditional practices, particularly in developing countries, when the same DSI are contained also in their seeds (to be considered PGRFA under  development)”.

The letter notes that biopiracy is a growing trend and that the ITPGFRA is not legally equipped to track and trace the movement of PGRFA shared through the MLS. According to the Special Rapporteur, “patents on DSI are already compromising the facilitated access to the MLS and making illegal what farmers have been doing for centuries and what is protected under the provisions of the Treaty, namely the conservation, exchange, and sale of their farm-saved seeds”.

The letter also conveys concerns over attempts to link benefit sharing under the ITPGFRA with the Cali Fund, a voluntary arrangement created under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for the sharing of benefits emanating from the use of DSI. Such moves, says the Special Rapporteur, could encroach on the jurisdiction of the ITPGRFA and lead to damaging consequences on  Farmers’ Rights and full enjoyment of the right to food. He calls for the ITPGRFA Governing Body to adopt “a firm stand on the issue, followed by concrete measures to protect the Multilateral System from the misuse and misappropriation of its resources by the seed industry, bringing DSI of PGRFA under its scope and reaffirming Contracting Parties sovereignty over plant genetic resources for food and agriculture contained in the MLS”.

Further, the letter seeks observations by the GB Chair on the following issues:

“1. What the Governing Body of the Treaty is doing to investigate the potential conflict of jurisdiction between the Multilateral Mechanism (MLM) for facilitated access and the sharing of benefits arising from the use of DSI under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the MLS under the ITPGRFA.

“2. What steps are being considered by the Governing Body to ensure that voluntary mechanisms such as the MLM and the Cali Fund do not undermine the legally binding obligations embedded in the Treaty and undermine national sovereignty over PGRFA.

“3. How the Governing Body is assisting the Contracting Parties to address this issue in their national legislation, namely, to prevent the extension of the scope of patents granted on technical processes to MLS PGRFA, their genetic parts or components, including the DSI contained therein.

“4. Has the Governing Body or any Contracting Party undertaken a study assessing the impact of free access to DSI without prohibition of claiming any intellectual property or other rights on Farmers’ Rights and the right to food? If so, what measures are being considered to mitigate identified risks?”