In a welcome development for Odisha’s farming community, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has allocated ₹14 lakh (Rs 0.14 crore) to the state under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism.
This forms part of a larger Rs 6.67 crore disbursement to 11 major cotton-growing states across India.
The amount has been realised from M/s Bayer Science & Innovation Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Monsanto Holdings Pvt. Ltd.) for research involving 25,431 cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) varieties.
With cotton playing a vital role in the livelihoods of lakhs of small and marginal farmers in Odisha — especially in western districts — this reinvestment of benefits back into conservation and community welfare is being hailed as a positive step.
Since the biological resources were accessed through traders and intermediaries, it was not possible to identify individual conservers. The NBA, guided by an Expert Committee and using transparent, science-based modalities, has therefore distributed the funds proportionally to each state’s area under cotton cultivation, based on data from the All India Coordinated Research Project on Cotton (AICRP), ICAR.
For Odisha, the ₹14 lakh will be utilised by the Odisha State Biodiversity Board for a range of impactful activities. These include on-farm and ex-situ conservation of local cotton varieties, documentation and updation of People’s Biodiversity Registers, strengthening of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs), ecosystem restoration in cotton-growing areas, documentation of traditional knowledge, capacity building, awareness programmes, and livelihood enhancement initiatives.
Farmers in key cotton belts such as Kalahandi, Rayagada and Balangir — regions that contribute significantly to the state’s cotton production and are home to many small and marginal farmers — stand to gain directly from these efforts.
The funds will help preserve valuable genetic traits in Odisha’s cotton germplasm, promote sustainable farming practices, and support communities who have long been custodians of this agrobiodiversity.“This disbursement demonstrates how benefits from commercial utilisation of biological resources are being channelled back to biodiversity-rich regions and local communities,” the NBA noted.
The allocation ensures that even when individual benefit claimers cannot be identified, the states and their farmers continue to receive support for conservation and socio-economic development.
With this release, the total ABS funds disbursed by the NBA have now reached Rs 152.24 crore. The initiative reinforces the principles of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and contributes to India’s commitments under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — particularly the fair and equitable sharing of benefits (Target 13) and conservation of genetic diversity (Target 4).
