From April to September of the current fiscal year, India's agricultural seed sector accounted for the largest share of revenue received from users of the country's biological resources under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations.
This legislative mechanism ensures that when local genetic resources generate commercial benefits, a fair share of the funds is directed to states and communities to support this biodiversity.
The Management, which is a government body under the Biological Diversity Act of 2002, oversees access to India's biological resources and associated knowledge, and implements the principle of fair and equitable benefit-sharing established by the Nagoya Protocol, which is a global convention.
The ABS mechanism goes beyond simple monetary collection, linking the use of biological resources with biodiversity conservation.