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Governing crop genetics in post-Soviet countries: lessons from the biodiversity hotspot Armenia

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Abstract

Armenia is amongst the world’s richest agrobiodiversity hotspots, but rapid genetic erosion is threatening these vital resources of food security. The objective of this study is to investigate how legislation and policies affect the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) in Armenia. National gene banks are central actors in this regard. Relevant legislation and policies within the context of international commitments and the institutional structures of Armenia are analysed, as well as their impact on the gene banks’ ability to provide access to PGRFA for farmers. Official documents, legislation and interviews with key stakeholders in Armenia are the primary sources of information. Despite Armenia’s post-Soviet trajectory of institutional collapse, war and lack of political support, national gene banks have managed to store much of Armenia’s plant heritage ex situ, even though under modest conditions. Armenian legislation provides barriers to the marketing and exchange of seeds from most traditional varieties. Nevertheless, informal exchange still continues amongst farmers to some extent. The legislation is a serious obstacle to conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA and thus to the compliance with relevant international agreements that Armenia is party to. As a comprehensive strategy and action plan on PGRFA conservation and sustainable use is still lacking, the gene banks’ promotion of on-farm conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA can be attributed to committed individuals taking responsibility for the country’s international obligations. Political attention and policy coherence are required, as are well-targeted long-term commitments from development agencies.

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Availability of data and material (data transparency)

All interviews have been transcribed, and the records are kept by the FNI in accordance with the FNI data management procedures.

Notes

  1. Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) means any genetic material of plant origin of actual or potential value for food and agriculture, according to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Article 2). The term encompasses cultivated plants as well as crop wild relatives and wild edible plants.

  2. In Georgia, the loss of agrobiodiversity has been analysed by Akhalkatsi and Ekhvaia (2012).

  3. Interview with government representative, Ministry of Economy.

  4. As part of its commitment to the CBD, Armenia adopted a comprehensive Strategy (Government of the Republic of Armenia 2015a) and a National Action Plan of the Republic of Armenia on Conservation, Protection, Reproduction and Use of Biological Diversity for 2016–2020 (Government of the Republic of Armenia, 2015b). The strategy provides a brief description of CWRs, but provides no direction for the management of PGRFA. Only one activity of the action plan is devoted to PGRFA as such: an action plan which is to be developed and implemented on restoration and conservation of old traditional varieties of cultivated plants, in particular those which are out of cultivation and those of their gene pool (Activity 3.6). Thus, the action plan set out a specific action plan to be developed for this purpose by the end of 2020. This did not happen.

  5. We are grateful to Gor Movsisyan, PhD, from the Environmental Law Resource Centre at the Faculty of Law at Yerevan State University translating from Armenian the Law of the Republic of Armenia on Seeds.

  6. For example, as compared with the EU legislation, see e.g. Winge 2015.

  7. The PLT was adopted in 2000 with the aim of harmonising and streamlining formal procedures with respect to national and regional patent applications, and it entered into force in 2005. See World Intellectual Property Organization: WIPO administered treaties—Contracting Parties of the Patent Law Treaty at https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=4.

  8. The PCT was adopted in 1970 and established the PCT Union. See https://www.wipo.int/pct/en/.

  9. The WIPO was established in 1967 as an agency of the United Nations and serves as a global forum for intellectual property services, policy information and cooperation; it had 193 member states as of March 2020. See https://www.wipo.int/portal/en/.

  10. In addition to Armenia: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Moldova. Moldova withdrew its ratification in 2012. Georgia and Ukraine signed the treaty in 1994, but never ratified. Thus, there are 8 parties to the EAPC as of 2020. See: https://www.eapo.org/en/.

  11. In 2019, an agreement was reached between the government of Georgia and the EPO validation of European patents (validation agreement). Information was downloaded from the EPO website entitled ‘Validation states’: https://www.epo.org/about-us/foundation/validation-states.html. Downloaded 12 March 2020.

  12. Based on an informal translation of the law from Armenian into English, as an official translation is not available.

  13. Actually, the law here refers to its Article 7 on genetic uniformity. However, this is obviously a mistake, as it would not make sense in this context. In the UPOV Convention, the numbering is a bit different, and here the reference is to Article 7 on distinctness. In the Armenian law, distinctness is covered in Article 6. We assume that this is what is meant by the references.

  14. The interviews with the gene bank managers were conducted 21–24 October 2019.The fifth institution registered in Genesys is the Scientific Center of Agriculture and has only 12 accessions.

  15. Sources: FAO WIEWS and Genesys; https://www.genesys-pgr.org/geo/ARM.

  16. See the ITPGRFA website of the ITPGRFA: Material available under the Multilateral System at http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/areas-of-work/the-multilateral-system/collections/en/?page=3&ipp=12&no_cache=1&tx_dynalist_pi1[par]=YToxOntzOjE6IkwiO3M6MToiMCI7fQ==.

  17. Based on an interview with the Executive Director of Green Lane, Nune Sarukhanyan, at the headquarters of Green Lane in Yerevan and at a visit to the Green Training Centre, both on 23 October 2019.

  18. Based on an interview with the Director of Shen, Hayk Minasian, and the Coordinator of Agriculture Projects, Nvard Shahmuradyan, at the headquarters of Shen in Yerevan 25 October 2019.

  19. Armen Harutyunyan, then Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, participated at the 5th Session of the Governing Body of the ITPGRFA in Oman in 2013. Prior to that, Alvina Avagyan, in different positions under the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia, participated at all the sessions of the Governing Body except for the first. Source: Reports from all the sessions of the Governing Body available at the ITPGRFA website: http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/meetings/en/.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ work on this article has been carried out with support from the Research Council of Norway, research Grant Number 274519, in the research project Suitable Seeds for Food Security in Fragile States, which is led by the FNI, Norway. We are grateful for comments on this article from colleagues Aida Iskoyan, Alvina Avagyan, Anitha Ramanna, Gor Movsesyan, Kamalesh Adhikari, Kristin Rosendal, Ola Westengen and two anonymous peer reviewers. Special thanks go to our interviewees in Armenia, who generously shared their knowledge and experience for this article.

Funding

This research is funded by the Research Council of Norway, research Grant Number 274519, for the research project Suitable Seeds for Food Security in Fragile States, which is led by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Norway.

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  1. Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Lysaker, Norway

    Pål Wilter Skedsmo & Regine Andersen

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  1. Pål Wilter Skedsmo
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Contributions

Both authors contributed to the study conception and design, data collection and analysis. Pål Wilter Skedsmo organised the field trip to Armenia, provided country-specific knowledge on Armenia, drafted parts of the first version of this manuscript, wrote the description and analysis of Armenian gene banks and the discussion of explanatory approaches. Regine Andersen developed the interview guideline, took the lead in conducting interviews, transcribed the interviews, developed the first outline and provided most of the information related to PGRFA, as well as analysing Armenian legislation and the sustainable use of PGRFA in relation to Armenia’s international commitments. Nevertheless, both authors contributed to all parts of the manuscript and co-authored the parts that are not mentioned above. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Pål Wilter Skedsmo.

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Skedsmo, P.W., Andersen, R. Governing crop genetics in post-Soviet countries: lessons from the biodiversity hotspot Armenia. Euphytica 217, 94 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-021-02824-w

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