New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed Rs 5.68 crore to State Boards under the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanism arising from the utilisation of biological resources related Okra, Cucumber and Watermelon, an official said on Sunday.
The major ABS recipients among the State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils are: Gujarat with Rs 88.79 lakh, West Bengal with Rs 78.08 lakh and Madya Pradesh with Rs 64.90 lakh, the official said in a statement.
“The funds have been channelled to State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs), Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs) and a national research institution, primarily in relation to Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), besides specified microbial and agricultural biological resources,” it said.
The largest ABS component relates to Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), covering 139 varieties and 28 hybrids, for which the NBA has released Rs 3.51 crore to 32 State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils.
The ABS amount was received from Nunhems India Private Limited in connection with its access to Okra.
The other major ABS components relate to Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), covering 662 varieties and 15 hybrids and Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), covering 1,009 varieties and 14 hybrids.
These biological resources were accessed through markets/traders by Nunhems India Private Limited, East West Seeds India Private Limited and Bayer Science and Innovation Private Limited.
In these cases, the biological resources were accessed from markets and traders, making it not feasible to trace them to specific individual farmers, communities or a single identifiable geographic source.
Accordingly, the modality recommended by the Expert Committee and approved by the Authority provides for distribution of the beneficiary share among the states and Union Territories where the concerned biological resource is cultivated.
In addition, the NBA has disbursed benefit-sharing funds to CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) – National Culture of Industrial Microorganisms at Pune, from an ABS amount received from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd at Mumbai.
With this disbursement, the total ABS amount disbursed by the NBA so far has crossed Rs 191 crore, the statement said.
The disbursements reaffirm the NBA’s commitment to ensuring that benefits arising from the utilisation of India’s biological resources are directed towards biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, strengthening of institutional capacities and activities benefiting communities and other stakeholders associated with the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.
–IANS
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