ROME, June 29 (Xinhuanet)-- An international treaty to widen access to plant genetic resources and enhance sustained global agricultural development became law on Tuesday, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced in Rome.

    "This is the start of a new era," said FAO Director-General, Dr Jacques Diouf. "The treaty brings countries, farmers and plant breeders together and offers a multilateral approach for accessing genetic resources and sharing their benefits. Humankind needs to safeguard and further develop the precious crop gene pool that is essential for agriculture."

    The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, signed in 2002, entered into force after 55 countries ratified it, FAO said.

    The world's crop gene pool is essential for feeding a growing world population. These genes provide the raw materials plant breeders need to develop new varieties to face unpredictable future challenges such as climate change, unknown pests and plant diseases to ensure a richer diet, FAO said.

    But agricultural biodiversity, which is the basis for food production, is in sharp decline due to modernization, changes in diets and increasing population density.

    Since the beginning of agriculture, the world's farmers have developed roughly 10,000 plant species for use in food and fodder production.

    Today, only 150 crops feed most of the world's population, and just 12 crops provide 80 percent of dietary energy.

    About three-quarters of the genetic diversity found in agricultural crops has been lost over the last century, and this genetic erosion continues, said FAO. Enditem