New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed Rs 1.04 crore in Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) benefits among 27 State Biodiversity Boards and two Union Territory Biodiversity Councils to support biodiversity-related initiatives.

The amount comprises contributions from Crystal Crop Protection Limited, Savannah Seeds Pvt. Ltd. and Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd. for access to agricultural biological resources for research and commercial purposes. The resources include pearl millet, jowar, maize, rice and bottle gourd.

The NBA has used an area-based methodology to allocate the funds where individual benefit claimers cannot be identified because the biological resources are procured through markets, traders or inte...