Both organisations presented themselves by introducing their own governance, the ongoing actions at the OIV on grapevine genetic resources and functional biodiversity, the ITPGRFA Multilateral System and discussed the tools for a future cooperation.
On June 29th, the Deputy Director General, Yann Juban, the Scientific Director, Jean-claude Ruf, and the Head of Unit Viticulture, Enrico Battiston, met the FAO Secretary International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), Kent Nnadozie, and the FAO fonctionnaires, Mario Marino and Marco Mersella. The bilateral meeting was hold in Conegliano (Italy) and hosted by the CREA Centre for Viticulture and Enology.
Since the adoption by the 31st FAO Conference on 2001, the ITPGRFA is an international agreement that ensures preservation, exchange, and use of the wealth of the world’s food crop diversity by assuring farmers and plant breeders to access, easily, to raw genetic material needed to develop new crop varieties. It provides a global solution to the challenges of crop diversity loss and climate change adaptation through mechanisms such as the Multilateral System and Benefit-sharing Fund, among the 144 Countries’ contracting parties of the Treaty.
After the meeting, the OIV Secretariat was invited to attend the next meeting of the ITPGRFA Governing Body, next November in Rome.