PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES 59
mercy of foreign capital. That the fears of plant genetic resources being used as a food weapon are not unfounded, is revealed by the FAO debate.
The US 'Gene-gate9
If more reasons were required for motivating the Third World representatives at the FAO, the letter from the US government to the chairperson of the IBPGR, dated January 19, 1977, provided them in an ample meassure This letter was in response to a request from the IBPGR asking the US to formally accept global 'base storage' responsibilities for the germ plasm of a number of crops. The US response was definitely 'positive' but it also frankly stated that any material the US recieved on behalf of the IBPGR "would become the property of the US government", It also added that whereas it was the policy of the US to exchange the material freely, "political considerations have at times dictated exclusion of a few countries9?.14" Among the Third World delegates, this letter, the contents of which were not disclosed officially by the IBPGR, came to be sneeringly referred to as the 'Gene-gate*. The US letter is still operational. It was also conceded that the grain embargo against the Soviet Union included a germ plasm embargo. Although the US 'black list' is not fully known, it is known that germ plasm embargoes are also in force against Afghanistan, Albania, Cuba, Libya, and Nicaragua. Thus the breeding materials gathered even through international agencies are being withheld from the donor nations on political grounds. In sharp contrast to this, the accession list of contributions to the Canadian gene bank shows that the major contributor was the USSR (42 per cent of the total) followed* by China and other socialist countries, while the US contribution amounted to a paltry 3 per cent of the total. As against this it may be noted that the USA holds 22 per cent of the world germ plasm collection, followed by USSR (7 per cent), India (6 per cent) and Malayasia (6 per cent).
The agreement forced at the FAO, though it falls far short of the legitimate demand for setting up an international convention for the free exchange of germ plasm and the establishment of an international gene bank monitored by the FAO, is, nevertheless, an important victory in the fight against neo-colonial domination. The agreement would bring, in principle, the controversial IBPGR under the inter-govern-mental supervision of member countries. But it remains to be seen how far this could be enforced in, the absence of concerted efforts by developing countries. It is not too late for the Third World countries to act and there are compelling reasons for concerted and coordinated action.
14 opcit l,pp 29-31.