India elected Vice-Chair at FAO’s ITWG on Animal Genetic Resources
Dr BN Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the National Coordinator from India, was elected as Vice-Chair and also as Rapporteur of the 12th Session of ITWG. He represents the Asia & Pacific region.
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India has been elected as Vice-Chair in the 12th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Intergovernmental Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR) for Food and Agriculture. The session was held at the FAO headquarters in Rome 18-20 January.
Dr BN Tripathi, Deputy Director General (Animal Science), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the National Coordinator from India, was elected as Vice-Chair and also as Rapporteur of the 12th Session of ITWG. He represents the Asia & Pacific region.
Dr Tripathi has worked extensively on the pathology and diagnosis of infectious diseases. He has published about 125 original research papers in national and international journals, three books, one manual and edited three conference proceedings. He has made pioneering contributions to molecular pathogenesis and diagnosis of Johne’s disease. He has been granted one patent.
The ITWG of FAO was established by the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) at its 7th session in May 1997.
The 12th session was intended to address the issues of 1) a review of the implementation of the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources; 2) a review of the status of the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System; and 3) preparation of the Third Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. It also discussed how to explore the role of genetic resources in mitigating climate change and adaptation to it; access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources; and “digital sequence information” and potential implications for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources.
Earlier, in the Global National Coordinators’ Workshop held in Rome on 16-17 January, before the ITWG session, the Indian efforts to preserve its large AnGR diversity were widely appreciated.
Dr Tripathi presented the country’s breed diversity, the cataloguing of native breeds, breed registration, the notification system and efforts to document non-descript AnGR. In the workshop, he also shared the country’s experience in filing the data in Domestic Animal Diversity – Information System (DAD-IS).
