The curator of the International Transit Centre, Ines Van den Houwe, preparing a shipment of banana plantlets
Credit: R. Markham/Bioversity

Bioversity hosts the International Musa Collection, which is located at the International Transit Centre in Leuven, Belgium.
Since, January 1, 2007, Bioversity has used the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) under the International Treaty for distribution of musa germplasm that is included in the Treaty's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. Musa textilis and Ensete, both of which are part of the International Musa Collection, are not included in the Treaty's Annex 1 list of crops in the multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. Prior to February 1, 2007, Bioversity used the 'interim MTA' that had been in use by the CGIAR Centres since May 2003 for the transfer of those materials. At its second session, 29 October - 2 November 2007, the Governing Body of the Treaty decided that the Centres should also use the SMTA when transferring non-Annex 1 plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. As a result, starting from 1 February 2008, Bioversity has also been using the SMTA for transferring Musa textilis and Ensete.
For more information about the material transfer agreements that the CGIAR Centres use under the framework of the International Treaty, and the agreements they signed with the Governing Body of the Treaty in October, 2006, please consult the Material Transfer Agreement page on the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) web site.