The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol) has been hailed as a giant step towards the implementation of the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to them. Implementing this third objective is intended to contribute to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components, the other two objectives of the CBD. The Nagoya Protocol confronts policy-makers and administrators responsible for its implementation at the national level with a number of challenges. One of these challenges is the Nagoya Protocol’s obligation to consider, in the development and implementation of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) measures, the importance of genetic resources for food and agriculture (GRFA) and their special role for food security. The Nagoya Protocol explicitly recognizes the importance of genetic resources to food security, the special nature of agricultural biodiversity, its distinctive features and problems needing distinctive solutions, as well as the interdependence of all countries with regard to GRFA, and the importance of GRFA for sustainable development of agriculture in the context of poverty alleviation and climate change. However, the Nagoya Protocol provides little guidance as to how the special features of GRFA might adequately be reflected in domestic ABS measures. In 2013, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Commission) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) put in place a process, the outputs of which are the Elements to Facilitate Domestic Implementation of Access and Benefit-Sharing for Different Subsectors of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ABS Elements). Developed by a Team of Technical and Legal Experts on Access and Benefit-sharing from all regions of the world, the ABS Elements were considered and welcomed by the Commission at its Fifteenth Regular Session (19–23 January 2015) and subsequently welcomed by the FAO Conference, the highest Governing Body of FAO. The ABS Elements aim to assist governments considering developing, adapting or implementing ABS measures to take into account the importance of GRFA, their special role for food security and the distinctive features of the different subsectors of GRFA, while complying, as applicable, with international ABS instruments.