Agricultural Biological Resources generate around ₹1.04 Crore in ABS Benefits for Biodiversity Initiatives across India

1. At a Glance

• The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has distributed about ₹1.04 crore in Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) money. It went to 27 State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and 2 Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs). [1]
• The money came from three companies that used agricultural biological resources for research and commercial purposes. It shows the BD Act's benefit-sharing provisions working inside agricultural supply chains. [1]
• Why it matters for UPSC: it links the BD Act 2002 (amended 2023), the Nagoya Protocol, KMGBF Target 13, farmers' and community rights, and federal biodiversity governance. All of these are tested repeatedly in GS-II and GS-III. [1]
• New method: money was allocated by area under cultivation. This was used because the crops were bought through markets or traders, so individual benefit claimers could not be identified. [1]

2. Why in the News

• 24 Oct 2026: PIB/MoEFCC announced the disbursal of ₹1,03,63,188 to SBBs and UTBCs. [1]
• The release came just before the CBD COP 17 side event "From Policy to Practice: Advancing India's Biodiversity Commitments through Innovation, Finance, and ABS". That event is on 28 Oct 2026 in Yerevan, Armenia. [1]
• Agriculture has generated about ₹87 crore (US$9.16 mn) in ABS contributions so far. The PIB calls it an "emerging" contributor. [1]

3. Background & Evolution

• Global origin: the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has three objectives. The third is fair and equitable sharing of benefits. COP Decision XII/13 described the Nagoya Protocol's entry into force as a significant step towards that objective. [9][10]
• 2002: India enacted the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. It set up a three-tier structure: NBA (national) → SBBs (state) → Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) (local). [8]
• 2010: the Nagoya Protocol was adopted at CBD COP 10 in Nagoya, Japan. [10]
• 12 Oct 2014: the Nagoya Protocol entered into force, 90 days after the 50th instrument of ratification was deposited. [9]
• Dec 2022 (COP 15): the Kunming–Montreal GBF was adopted. Target 13 covers benefit sharing from genetic resources, DSI and associated traditional knowledge (TK). COP 15 also agreed to develop a DSI benefit-sharing solution. [11]
• 2023: the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023. [1][3]
• 2024: the Biological Diversity Rules, 2024, and COP 16 Decision 16/2, which set out a multilateral DSI mechanism with a global fund fed by commercial users. [1][12]
• 2025: the Access and Benefit-Sharing Regulations, 2025. [1]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Disbursing body	National Biodiversity Authority (under MoEFCC) [1]
Recipients	27 SBBs + 2 UTBCs [1]
Exact amount	₹1,03,63,188 (≈ ₹1.04 crore) [1]
Contributors	Crystal Crop Protection Ltd., Savannah Seeds Pvt. Ltd., Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd. [1]
Crops	Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), jowar (Sorghum bicolor), maize (Zea mays), rice (Oryza sativa L.), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) [1]
Allocation basis	Area-based, proportional to where each crop is grown and how much area it covers [1]
Data source	MoA&FW's Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics [1]
Legal provision	Section 21, BD Act: determination of fair and equitable benefit sharing [1]
Legal framework	BD Act 2002 (amended 2023) + BD Rules 2024 + ABS Regulations 2025 [1]
Cumulative NBA releases	> ₹204 crore (US$21.48 mn) released to date [1]
Agri-sector ABS total	≈ ₹87 crore (US$9.16 mn) [1]
Global linkages	CBD, Nagoya Protocol, KMGBF Target 13 [1][11]

State-wise top 10 (₹) [1]:

1. Uttar Pradesh: 10,35,790
2. Maharashtra: 10,05,218
3. Madhya Pradesh: 9,81,132
4. Bihar: 7,95,968
5. West Bengal: 7,91,609
6. Karnataka: 7,34,400
7. Telangana: 5,76,934
8. Chhattisgarh: 5,20,524
9. Odisha: 4,99,655
10. Rajasthan: 4,87,874

All other states together received 29,34,084. The top 10 add up to ₹74,29,104, about 72% of the total (my calculation from the PIB table).

Permitted uses of the funds: biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, documentation, research, capacity building, and strengthening local biodiversity governance. [1]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Economic

• The seed sector was the largest contributor to the ₹21.26 crore NBA realised in FY 2025–26. This shows that commercial agricultural R&D is now a major source of ABS revenue. [2]
• By the June 2026 count, NBA had realised ₹266 crore in total and disbursed ₹145 crore. That gap between money collected and money passed on is a pipeline bottleneck. [2]
• ABS works as a non-budgetary biodiversity finance tool and complements MoEFCC grants. For example, NBA gave ₹6.09 crore in financial support to SBBs/UTBCs in FY 2025–26. [4]

Social / Equity

• When produce is bought through traders, the farming communities who kept the germplasm alive cannot be identified. The area-based method spreads benefits across the regions where the crops are grown. [1]
• The trade-off is that the money reaches state boards, not individual farmers. Whether it reaches BMCs depends on state-level action. Compare the direct release of ₹67 lakh to the Dapur BMC (Maharashtra). [1][7]

Environmental

• The funds are meant to help conserve traditional crop varieties and genetic diversity. That matters for climate resilience, especially for millets such as pearl millet and jowar. [1]
• This is in-situ agrobiodiversity conservation funded by the companies that use it, so users pay for conservation. [1]

Legal / Constitutional

• Section 21 of the BD Act is the basis for determining benefit sharing. [1]
• Under the 2023 amendment, applicants covered by Section 7 need an NBA Certificate of Registration before they seek IPR on Indian biological resources. PIB credits this with a rise in IPR filings. [3]
• Division of roles: the NBA handles access by foreign entities. SBBs regulate commercial use by Indian entities. [8]

Geopolitical / Strategic

• India presents its ABS record as practical implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and GBF Target 13, and is showing it at COP 17. [1]
• DSI is still contested. COP 16 proposed that commercial users pay a share of profits or revenue into a global fund. [12]
• A COP 17 Secretariat document says progress on Target 13 has been addressed "to a lesser extent" than on other targets. [13]

Administrative / Federal

• Money flows NBA → SBBs/UTBCs → BMCs, which reflects cooperative federalism in biodiversity governance. [1][8]
• Earlier precedents:
• ₹3.79 crore to 33 States/UTs and national institutes. [5]
• ₹10.40 lakh spread across 24 districts. [6]

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• FY 2025–26: NBA realised ₹21.26 crore through ABS. The seed sector was the top contributor. [2]
• FY 2025–26: NBA gave ₹6.09 crore in financial support to SBBs and UTBCs. [4]
• 2026: NBA distributed ₹10.40 lakh across 24 districts. [6]
• 2026: NBA distributed about ₹3.79 crore to 33 States/UTs and national institutes. [5]
• 2026: PIB reported a rise in IPR filings after the 2023 amendment reforms. [3]
• Sept 2026: CBD released its COP 17 documents. A DSI contact group is set up for the COP 17 session. [13][14]
• 24 Oct 2026: the ₹1.04 crore agricultural ABS disbursal covered in this note. [1]
• 28 Oct 2026: India's side event at COP 17, Yerevan. [1]

7. Prelims Hooks

• NBA disbursed ₹1.04 crore in ABS to 27 SBBs and 2 UTBCs in Oct 2026. [1]
• Section 21 of the BD Act, 2002 covers the determination of fair and equitable benefit sharing. [1]
• India's ABS framework = BD Act 2002 (amended 2023) + BD Rules 2024 + ABS Regulations 2025. [1]
• The area-based allocation used data from the Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics (MoA&FW). [1]
• Pennisetum glaucum = pearl millet (bajra). Sorghum bicolor = jowar. Lagenaria siceraria = bottle gourd. [1]
• Uttar Pradesh received the largest state share. Maharashtra was second. [1]
• Agriculture's cumulative ABS contribution is ≈ ₹87 crore. [1]
• NBA's cumulative releases exceed ₹204 crore. [1]
• The seed sector was the largest ABS contributor in FY 2025–26 (₹21.26 crore realised). [2]
• The Nagoya Protocol was adopted at COP 10 (2010) and came into force on 12 Oct 2014. [9][10]
• KMGBF Target 13 covers benefit sharing from genetic resources, DSI and associated TK. [11]
• CBD COP 17 is being held in Yerevan, Armenia (Oct 2026). [1]
• A Certificate of Registration from the NBA is required before seeking IPR on Indian biological resources (Section 7 entities). [3]
• The BD Act has a three-tier structure: NBA – SBB – BMC. [8]

8. Why ₹1.04 Crore Is Small Once It Is Split Up

• The headline sounds big, but each state gets very little
• ₹1,03,63,188 was split among 29 bodies (27 SBBs and 2 UTBCs) [1].
• Uttar Pradesh, the largest receiver, got only ₹10,35,790 for the whole state [1]. That is about 10% of the total (my calculation).

• The 19 bodies outside the top 10 shared ₹29,34,084 [1]. That is about ₹1.5 lakh each on average (my calculation). It cannot run a real conservation programme in a state.

• Compare it with other NBA payments to see the scale

• In one earlier release, a single village-level body, the Dapur BMC in Maharashtra, received ₹67 lakh [7]. That is more than six states together got here.
• NBA's ordinary grant support to SBBs and UTBCs was ₹6.09 crore in FY 2025–26 [4]. This ABS payment is about one-sixth of that.
• So the importance of this release is the method, not the amount. Read it as a test case, not as a large money transfer.

9. Why the Money Goes to Big Farm States, Not to Seed Keepers

• The money goes by today's crop area, not by who saved the seed
• The share for each state was fixed by how much land grows each crop, using MoA&FW's Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics [1].
• So states with large areas under maize or rice get more money.

• But benefit sharing exists to reward the communities that kept germplasm (the living seed and plant material that breeders use) alive [1]. Those communities may live in small hill or tribal pockets with little cultivated area.

• The result is that big producers gain more than diversity hotspots

• A state can grow a lot of one modern hybrid and still get a large share.
• A region that keeps many old landraces (traditional local varieties) on small plots gets little.

• The note itself says this method was used only because the companies bought through markets and traders, so the real benefit claimers could not be traced [1]. It is a fallback method, not a fair answer.

• Better targeting has already been done

• NBA has sent ABS money directly to 24 districts before [6], and to one BMC [7].
• So finer targeting is possible when the origin of the material is known.

10. Where the Money Gets Stuck Before Reaching Villages

• Collected money is not passed on quickly
• By June 2026, NBA had collected ₹266 crore but passed on only ₹145 crore [2].

• That means only about 55% of what was collected had moved on (my calculation).

• This release also stops at the state level

• The money goes to SBBs and UTBCs, not to BMCs (Biodiversity Management Committees, the village- or town-level bodies under the BD Act) [1][8].
• Whether any of it reaches a BMC depends on what each state board decides [1].

• So there are two points where money can sit idle: NBA to state, and state to village.

• Why this matters

• The BD Act's three-tier design puts BMCs at the bottom precisely because they hold the local knowledge and records [8].
• If money stays with state boards, the people the law was written for see nothing.

11. How the 2023 Amendment Narrowed Who Has to Pay

• Some users no longer share benefits at all
• The 2021 Bill, which became the 2023 amendment, exempted codified traditional knowledge (knowledge already written in classical texts) and cultivated medicinal plants from benefit sharing [15].
• The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) warned that most AYUSH knowledge is codified. Even knowledge written into a People's Biodiversity Register might be treated as codified [15].

• Its conclusion: this "may lead to denial of benefit to a majority of local traditional knowledge holders" [15].

• The same tracing problem appears in agriculture

• For cultivated plants, the JPC said origin should be proved through an entry in the records of the local authority [15].
• This agri release failed for the same reason: origin could not be traced through traders [1].

• So the gap is not only legal. It is a record-keeping gap at the local level.

• Penalties may be too low to make companies pay

• The amendment changed offences from crimes to civil penalties of ₹1 lakh to ₹50 lakh [15].
• The JPC said penalties should not be "too meagre". It said they should depend on the company's gains and size [15].
• For a large seed company, a flat ₹50 lakh cap may be cheaper than paying ABS honestly.

12. Why Sequence Data Could Make This Model Out of Date

• This method needs a physical crop to follow
• Here, money was linked to crops that companies physically bought and used [1].
• With DSI (Digital Sequence Information, the genetic code of a plant stored as data), a company may use a gene without ever buying the seed.

• Then there is no purchase, no trader and no crop area to share money by.

• The global answer is still weak

• COP 16 agreed on a global fund that commercial DSI users should pay into [12].
• But a COP 17 document says Target 13 has been addressed "to a lesser extent" than other targets [13].
• Seed companies were the biggest ABS payers in FY 2025–26 [2]. If their research moves to DSI, India's largest ABS income source could shrink.

13. What Each Body Should Do Next

• SBBs: pass the money to BMCs within a fixed time
• The release lets states decide how the money moves down [1].

• States should copy the Dapur BMC [7] and 24-district [6] releases, where money reached a named local body.

• MoEFCC and NBA: build origin records at village level

• The JPC asked that origin of cultivated plants be proved by an entry in local authority records [15].

• The same rule could apply to seed and crop material bought for breeding. Then real benefit claimers could be found, and area-based sharing would only be a last resort.

• NBA: report the money pipeline openly

• The ₹266 crore collected vs ₹145 crore passed on gap [2] should be published state-wise every year. Then delays are visible.

• Parliament / MoEFCC: link penalties to company gains

• This was the JPC's own recommendation [15]. It would make avoiding ABS costlier than paying it.

• India at COP 17: push for a working DSI fund

• India should use this agri case to argue that DSI users must pay, as agreed in Decision 16/2 [12].

14. Anchors for Answers

• Data: NBA collected ₹266 crore in ABS but passed on only ₹145 crore by mid-2026, about 55% [2]
• Data: ₹1.04 crore split among 29 bodies; the 19 smaller recipients average about ₹1.5 lakh each [1]
• Report/Committee: Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 (Chair: Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal), report tabled 2 Aug 2022. It warned that the codified-TK exemption could deny benefits to most local knowledge holders [15]
• Law/Case: Section 21, Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (benefit sharing). The 2023 amendment changed offences to civil penalties of ₹1 lakh–₹50 lakh [1][15]
• Comparison: COP 16 Decision 16/2: a global fund where commercial DSI users pay, instead of tracing each physical sample [12]

15. Mains Relevance

• GS-III: Conservation of environment and biodiversity; IPR and biotechnology; agricultural biodiversity and seed-sector issues.
• GS-II: Important international agreements (CBD, Nagoya Protocol, KMGBF); federal institutions (statutory bodies such as the NBA and SBBs).
• Possible question stems: 1. Discuss how India's Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 operationalises the Nagoya Protocol. Evaluate its effectiveness in agricultural supply chains. 2. Where benefit claimers cannot be identified, area-based benefit sharing is a pragmatic but imperfect solution. Critically examine. 3. Digital Sequence Information poses new challenges to benefit-sharing regimes. Examine India's stake in the global DSI debate in the context of GBF Target 13.

16. Related Topics to Study Next

• Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023: the source of the current ABS and IPR rules. [3]
• Nagoya Protocol and the CBD's three objectives: the parent international framework. [9]
• KMGBF (30×30, Target 13): the global targets India reports against. [11]
• DSI multilateral mechanism (COP 16 Decision 16/2): the next frontier for ABS. [12]
• PPV&FR Act, 2001 and farmers' rights: a parallel benefit-sharing regime for plant varieties. It overlaps with agricultural resources.
• ITPGRFA (FAO Seed Treaty): the multilateral system for crop genetic resources, with alternative ABS rules for food crops.
• BMCs and People's Biodiversity Registers: the local level that should finally receive the benefits. [8]
• International Year of Millets 2023 and millet missions: pearl millet and jowar are among the crops involved.

17. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Access and benefit sharing (Economy): This is the core mechanism: companies using farm genetic resources pay, and the money is shared with providers.
• Biological Diversity Act 2002 (Geography): The law behind the ABS payments, including Section 21 and the NBA, State Boards and local committees.
• Nagoya Protocol (Geography): The international treaty on benefit sharing that India's ABS rules put into practice.
• Biodiversity Management Committees (Geography): The village-level bodies that should finally receive the money, but this release stopped at state boards.
• Convention on Biological Diversity (Geography): The parent treaty whose third objective is fair benefit sharing; COP 17 and Target 13 stem from it.
• Genetic diversity (Geography): Explains why traditional crop varieties and seed keepers deserve benefits, and why the funds aim to conserve them.

18. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Realised vs. released: ₹266 crore is what NBA realised (collected) and ₹145 crore was disbursed, as of mid-2026. ₹204 crore is what NBA has released (by Oct 2026). Do not swap these numbers. [1][2]
• NBA vs. SBB jurisdiction: the NBA handles foreign entities and IPR approvals. SBBs regulate commercial use by Indian entities. [3][8]
• Ministry: the NBA comes under MoEFCC, not the Agriculture Ministry. MoA&FW only supplied the statistics used for allocation. [1]
• Section numbers: Section 21 = benefit sharing. Section 7 = the regime for Indian entities. [1][3]
• Nagoya dates: adopted in 2010, in force in 2014. Do not mix these up with the KMGBF (2022) or with the host city of COP 16 or COP 17. [9][10]