The Commission’s statutes charge it with taking "a coordinating role and ... deal[ing] with policy, sectoral and cross-sectoral matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of relevance to food and agriculture".
[2] The Commission on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was established in 1983 in line with a resolution adopted by the Twenty-second Session of the Conference of FAO.
[11] The Commission subsequently guided the preparation of The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, published by FAO in 1997.
[12] The process led to the development and adoption of the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
[5] In 2001, the Conference of FAO adopted the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, a legally binding instrument negotiated by the Commission.
[17] The process led to the development and adoption of the Second Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in 2011.
[24][25] To support and facilitate the implementation of its global plans of action, the Commission has adopted a number of codes, standards and guidelines.
[6] Over the years, it has established intergovernmental technical working groups for plant (1997), animal (1998), forest (2009) and aquatic (2015) genetic resources.