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The Establishment and the Constitution of the Crop Trust

The Founding of the Crop Trust

The Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust) was established in October 2004 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and Bioversity International on behalf of the CGIAR for the purpose of sustainably supporting a global system for the conservation and use of crop diversity through its Crop Diversity Endowment Fund.

Laying the Foundations for a Global System

In 1996, after long negotiations, 150 countries adopted the first Global Plan of Action (GPA) for conserving and using crop diversity. The GPA called for a rational global conservation system, based on the principles of effectiveness, efficiency and transparency.

In 2011, the Second GPA reiterated that call. In between, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, came into force in 2004, placing this global system at the core of its efforts to conserve and use crop diversity for food security. 

Current Signatories to the Establishment Agreement

Twenty-eight countries have signed, or acceded to, the Crop Trust’s Establishment Agreement:

  • Egypt (1 April 2004)
  • Cape Verde (1 April 2004)
  • Jordan (15 April 2004)
  • Togo (4 May 2004)
  • Morocco (21 June 2004)
  • Syria (25 June 2004)
  • Samoa (29 June 2004)
  • Ethiopia (9 July 2004)
  • Tonga (23 August 2004)
  • Peru (23 August 2004)
  • Mali (6 October 2004)
  • Ecuador (7 October 2004)
  • Colombia (21 October 2004)
  • Sweden (21 October 2004)
  • Mauritius (24 November 2004)
  • Serbia and Montenegro (24 November 2004)
  • Cameroon (14 February 2005)
  • Cambodia (6 May 2005)
  • Pakistan (23 May 2005)
  • Romania (22 June 2005)
  • Uganda (14 September 2005)
  • Kenya (15 February 2006)
  • Australia (22 September 2006)
  • Ghana (6 September 2006)
  • India (9 January 2007)
  • Switzerland (29 October 2007)
  • Slovakia (28 May 2010)
  • Germany (11 December 2012)
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