India's biodiversity boards reap ₹1.04 Crore from ABS benefits across the country

Prelims-testable facts

• 01The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed around ₹1.04 crore of Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) amount among 27 State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and two Union Territory Biodiversity Councils.
• 02The ABS amount was received from Crystal Crop Protection Limited, Savannah Seeds Pvt. Ltd., and Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd. for access to agricultural biological resources for research and commercial purposes.
• 03The crops that contributed to the ABS amount include pearl millet, jowar, maize, rice, and bottle gourd.
• 04The NBA has adopted an area-based approach to distribute the benefit-sharing component, where biological resources are procured through markets, traders, or intermediaries.
• 05The disbursal of ₹1.04 crore covers allocations to SBBs and UTBCs, with state-wise distribution based on the applicable area-based methodology.
• 06The agriculture sector has generated approximately ₹87 crore ($9.16 mn) in ABS contributions, emerging as an important contributor to India's ABS mechanism.
• 07Till date, the NBA has released over ₹204 crore ($21.48 mn) in ABS benefits, supporting biodiversity conservation and benefit sharing across the country.

Trap alerts

• Most people think that ABS benefits are only shared with individual farmers, but actually, they are distributed among State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils.
• Most people think that ABS benefits are only related to traditional crop varieties, but actually, they also include genetic diversity and digital sequence information.