National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) releases Rs 15.52 crore to States and Union Territories for mustard genetic resources

Key facts

• The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) released Rs 15.52 crore in Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) proceeds to States and Union Territories for mustard genetic resources.
• The NBA is a statutory body established under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and functions under the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• The amount will be distributed to 26 State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and three Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs), with each share based on the area under mustard cultivation.
• Pioneer Overseas Corporation bred the 10 mustard varieties in-house, while the parental lines were sourced from the open market and traders.
• Since no single farmer or community could be identified as the source, the NBA constituted an expert committee to decide the ABS disbursal modalities.
• The NBA used cultivation-area data from the ICAR–Indian Institute of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (ICAR-IIRMR), Bharatpur, Rajasthan, to calculate each state's share.
• Every State Biodiversity Board and Union Territory Biodiversity Council must use the ABS amount as per Section 32 of the Biological Diversity Act for activities such as updating People's Passport Registers, in-situ and ex-situ conservation, restoring degraded ecosystems, and strengthening Biodiversity Heritage Sites.
• The NBA has released a total ABS amount of Rs 182.5 crore so far, including Rs 116.22 crore to beneficiaries across the country in the past 12 months.
• The release supports the principles of the Nagoya Protocol and Target 13 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework on fair and equitable benefit sharing.