Dear Colleagues!

  N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry introduces a draft law «On plant genetic resources and introducing amendments into some legislative acts of the Russian Federation» for a wide discussion in Internet. You can review the full text at the web-site of the Russian Government in the section «Public assessment» (only in Russian). Deadline is March 31, 2012.

   The draft law «On plant genetic resources and introducing amendments into some legislative acts of the Russian Federation» developed by the Ministry of Agriculture of Russia is aimed to govern relations referring to collection, conservation, study and efficient use of plant genetic resources of cultivated plants on the territory of the Russian Federation. At the present time these issues are not being regulated by legislation what creates conditions for the decline of food security in Russia.

   In 2009 the Federal Property Management Agency adopted a resolution sanctioning a conveyance of two plots of the Pavlovsk Experiment Station being a part of the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry in the ownership of the Russian Housing Development Foundation. This issue was widely discussed by the public. Solely thanks to the active participation of the Russian Government a moratorium was set.

   At the same time the absence of the legal regulation endangers other PGR-collections located at different stations of the Institute, in particular Astrakhanskaya, Far-East and Volgograd stations.

   The draft law is therefore aimed to solve property issues related to the PGR-collections. The law establishes legal regime of land plots assigned for them. It stipulates development of the All-Russian PGR-database comprising accession`s passport data and major principles of the State policy with PGR. Besides, it defines powers of the Russian Federation for PGR.