The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3 November 2001.
The Treaty aims at: 1) recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world; 2) establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials; 3) ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.