Vice-president of the RAS supports the ratification of the agreement on plant genetic resources

She explained that this is the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of 2004, to which Russia has not yet joined. According to Donnik, after the agreement entered into force for the United States in 2017, Russia and China remained the only countries with large agricultural collections which have not yet joined. «Accession to the treaty will allow Russia to gain access to genetic world banks controlled by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN), to participate in joint international projects, including expeditions. We already participate, but this will legitimise our international activity,» said Nikolai Dzyubenko, the director of the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources.