NBA releases Rs 8.22 crore to rice research institutions and rice-growing States
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) released Rs 8.22 crore to rice research institutions and rice-growing states under its Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism.
The funds originated from an international seed company that used Indian rice (Oryza sativa) genetic resources to develop and commercialise hybrid varieties.
Of the total, Rs 2.47 crore went to research institutions that had conserved and shared the source rice varieties; ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad received the largest institutional share (about Rs 2.43 crore), while Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand, received a smaller share (about Rs 3.26 lakh) tied to a specific variety it had contributed.
The remaining funds were distributed to State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils across rice-growing states, to be used for local conservation and benefit-sharing activities.
Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was enacted to give effect to India's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and, later, the Nagoya Protocol (2010, which India ratified in 2012). It establishes a three-tier structure — the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local body level — to regulate access to biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, and to ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their commercial use.
Key Details
- NBA is established under Section 8 of the Act; SBBs under Section 22; BMCs under Section 41.
- The NBA is a statutory body headquartered in Chennai, functioning since 2003.
- Over 62,000 BMCs have been constituted across India to date, giving the framework a village-level footprint.
- Access and Benefit Sharing Regulations, 2014 operationalise the benefit-sharing formula for commercial use of Indian biological resources by outside entities (domestic or foreign).
This disbursement is a direct, real-world instance of the ABS mechanism functioning — a foreign seed company's use of Indian rice germplasm for commercial hybrid development triggered a statutory benefit-sharing payout to the conserving institutions and states, exactly as envisaged under the Act.
Institutional Role of ICAR-IIRR in Conservation and Farmers' Rights
ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad (formerly the All India Coordinated Rice Improvement Project, established 1965) is India's apex rice research institute and serves as the nodal DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity, Stability) testing institution for rice under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Authority, set up under the PPV&FR Act, 2001. It maintains rice germplasm collections that both support crop breeding and serve as the genetic resource base drawn upon in ABS cases.
Key Details
- The PPV&FR Act, 2001 protects both plant breeders' rights and farmers' rights, including farmers' right to register and claim benefit-sharing for traditional/farmer-developed varieties.
- IIRR facilitates registration of Extant Notified Varieties and Farmers' Varieties of rice with the PPV&FR Authority.
- The institute's germplasm and seed collections are the reason it received the largest institutional share of this ABS payout.
The payout to IIRR underscores the dual legal architecture governing plant genetic resources in India — the Biological Diversity Act (ABS for wild/traditional biological resources) operating alongside the PPV&FR Act (breeders' and farmers' rights over cultivated plant varieties) — a distinction UPSC frequently tests.
- Total disbursement: Rs 8.22 crore, funded by an international seed company (Pioneer Overseas Corporation) for commercial use of Indian rice varieties.
- Rs 2.47 crore of this went to research institutions; ICAR-IIRR Hyderabad received the largest share, about Rs 2.43 crore.
- Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand, received about Rs 3.26 lakh for a specific contributed variety.
- NBA has received nearly Rs 83 crore in ABS payments from the agriculture and seed sector alone; cumulative ABS disbursements across all sectors have crossed Rs 162 crore.
- Legal basis: Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (NBA under Section 8, SBBs under Section 22, BMCs under Section 41); India ratified the Nagoya Protocol in 2012.