C1.2. Private and public interests: farmers' rights and breeders' rights. Indian experience

C 1: New Investment
Sub Session C 1.2: Public Private Civil Mechanisms

Private and public interests:
Private and public interests:
Farmers’ rights and Breeders’ rights --
Farmers’ rights and Breeders’ rights
Indian Experience
Indian Experience
Malavika Dadlani, Joint Director (Research), IARI, New Delhi
P L Gautam, Chairperson, PPV&FR Authority, New Delhi
www.iari.res.in & www.plantauthority.gov.in

Punta del Este, Uruguay
29 October 2012
Farmers Rights and breeders Rights, 2929 October 2012, Uruguay
Farmers Rights and breeders Rights, October 2012, Uruguay

The Indian Patent Act, 1970 (and its subsequent amendments in 1999, 2002
and 2005) excluded plants and animals from patentability.

With this exclusion, and having ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of WTO, India was obliged to protect these
under a sui generis system as per the mandate of Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS
Agreement.

The Government of India enacted the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’
Rights (PPV&FR) Act in 2001 (53 of 2001).


Genetic Use Restriction Technology,
Sovereign Rights, ABS, Benefit Sharing
Sui generis System
PPV & FR Act
CBD 1992 Bio-safety Protocol, 2000 2001
ABS supplementary Protocol, 2010
WTO / TRIPS 1994
outcome of the
Intensive and Benefit Sharing, Community
Farmers Right Rights, Gene Fund
Extensive
International Treaty on plant Biodiversity Act 2002,
genetic resources
National
Seeds Act 1966,
for food & agriculture, 2004 Consultations
Seed Control Order, 1983;
and response to National Seed Development
Breeders Right international Policy, 1988;
developments / Patent Act,1970,
UPOV 1961,72, 78, 91 GI Act, 1999,
obligations
National Farmer Policy, 2007 etc.


Breeders’ Rights
• An exclusive right to produce, sell, market, distribute,
import or export the variety
• A breeder may authorize any person to produce, sell,
market or otherwise deal with the variety registered
• Breeder enjoys provisional protection of his variety
against any abusive act committed by any third party
during filing of application for registration and decision
taken by Authority
Researcher’s Rights
• Researcher can use the variety for experiment or
research for developing other variety

Farmers’ Rights
 to save use, exchange, share and sell seed of a protected variety
except as branded seed
 to register traditional varieties & protect new varieties
 to compensation in case of non performance
 benefit sharing from use of traditional varieties
 for protection against infringement
 Exemption on fees
Community Rights and Benefits
 Recognition of communities in conserving genetic resources and
landraces and benefit sharing for role in evolution of varieties

Farmers are recognized as cultivators, conservers & breeders

Category Applications
Received
Registration
Certificates
Issued
New Varieties 1113 40
Extant Varieties including varieties
notified under Seeds Act and
1735 466
Varieties about which there is a
common knowledge
Farmers Varieties 1221 6
Essentially derived varieties 2 Nil

Total 4070 512

Projects launched by PPV&FR Authority for promoting registration of Farmers’ Varieties
Projects launched by PPV&FR Authority for promoting registration of Farmers’ Varieties
Characterisation, purification and documentation of Farmers’ varieties (FVs) : A
number of agricultural research institutions and universities are generating data
and assisting in filing of applications for FVs
Rice biodiversity conservation in Jharkhand and Meghalaya: Gene Campaign, an
NGO, is involved in the in-situ and ex-situ conservation and characterisation of agro
biodiversity in the predominantly tribal state of Jharkhand, one of the 22 agro-
biodiversity hotspots.
Conservation of landraces of colocasia from North Eastern Hills, Nagaland: A
survey was conducted by ICAR NEH to collect local landraces of colocasia. Twenty
two accessions were collected and characterised for different traits.
Characterisation and registration of traditional rice varieties in Tamil Nadu:
Focussing on characterization of traditional rice varieties from coastal belt and
cauvery delta of Tamil Nadu, VAANGHAI, an NGO, collected 69 varieties and
submitted application for registration of six varieties to the Authority.


Establishment of National Gene Fund
Section 45 of the PPV&FR Act, 2001
Section 45 of the PPV&FR Act, 2001

In Flow Out Flow

Compensation
Compensation
amount deposited
amount deposited Reimbursement of
Reimbursement of
Benefit shares
Benefit shares
Contributions from
Contributions from National Gene Fund
National Gene Fund
National & International
National & International
Organizations Constituted by the
Constituted by the Reimbursement of
Reimbursement of
Organizations
Government of India
Government of India compensation
compensation
Annual Fee
Annual Fee
Supporting
Supporting
Benefit sharing
Benefit sharing conservation
conservation
amount deposited
amount deposited


Plant Genome Savior Community Award and Recognition

•Plant Genome Savior Community
Awards 2009-10 onwards: 6 communities
awarded

•Plant Genome Savior Community
Recognitions since 2007: 16
communities / individual farmers
recognised

•Protection of Plant Varieties and 22 Agro-biodiversity hotspots
Farmers Rights (Recognition and Reward distributed over 07 agro-
from the Gene Fund) Rules, 2012 geographical zones of India


Empowering farmers / farming communities
Farmer Dadaji Khobragade of Chandrapur district, Maharashtra developed rice varieties HMT in
2008 and DRK in 2009, which are registered with the PPV&FR Authority. The Government of
Maharastra has allotted land to enable him to continue his research on improved varieties.

Sanjeevini Rural Development Society, Distt. Vishakapatnam, State. Andhra Pradesh: The
society promotes cultivation of more than 150 traditional crop varieties available in 60 villages.
More than 1200 ha are being cultivated with the conserved varieties of paddy and ragi and
about 800 ha with varieties of pulses, corn and bottle gourd. The communities are maintaining
33 grain banks. The State Biodiversity Board has recognized the services of this society.

National Innovation Foundation (NIF), promotes grass root innovations, assisting in filing of
applications for Patent, Trademark, Design and Plant Variety Registration. Technology
Acquisition Fund Awards were conferred to 24 farmers, for variety development.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research launched a national project to document indigenous
knowledge and also recognises innovative farmers by as Farmer Fellows.

State of Haryana established State Agriculture Innovation Fund for evolution and diffusion of
grassroot indigenous knowledge and innovations in agriculture. Farmers Rights and breeders Rights, 2929 October 2012, Uruguay

Exemptions provided under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BDA): The Act
provides for certain exemptions to / local people and communities including
traditional practioners and healers for normally traded commodities from the
purview of the Act, subject to overall policy guidelines.

Both BD Act, 2002 and PPV & FR Act, 2001 have provisions for benefit sharing,
exemption has also been provided in Section 6(3) of the BD Act for applicants
seeking protection under the PVP Act in India.

PPV&FR Act, 2001 and Biological Diversity Act have close similarities,
particularly, in policies framed for protection of the rights of indigenous
communities in conserving and developing genetic resources.

State level and (SBB) / local ( BMC) committees play an important role in helping
farmers in filing and forwarding applications of farmers’ varieties for
registration.

Suggested elements for the road map

• Public-Private sector partnership: value addition and
promotion of the useful farmers’ varieties in the respective
areas of adaptation.
• Partnership in enabling farmers for protection of traditional
varieties and also in commercialisation
• Partnership in research, participatory plant breeding and
sharing of benefits
• Institutional mechanism for protecting farmers’ and
breeders rights


………. suggested elements

• Ensuring the protection of traditional knowledge, the
participation in equitable benefit sharing and farmers'
participation in decision making with regard to genetic
resources
• Creating awareness on the importance of Farmers'
and Breeder’s Rights
• Also generate awareness among farmers about
Breeders rights and its ultimate benefits


Challenges
•Improving farmer- public-private cooperation in
agricultural research for development
•To create an enabling environment of mutual trust
among various stakeholdrs
•To create awareness about public-private-civil
partnerships in agricultural research
•To generate public awareness and capacity building of
all stakeholders
•Promoting conservation and sustainable utilisation

For greater impact
• Support research in evaluation and improvement of
farmers’ varieties
• Evolve an effective model / platform for promoting use
of farmers’ varieties for crop improvement and
commercialisation
• Create databases of farmers’ varieties and associated
traditional knowledge
• Provide incentives to the industry/civil societies for
supporting conservation and sustainable use of farmers’
varieties Farmers Rights and breeders Rights, 2929 October 2012, Uruguay

Way forward
• Responsive R&D efforts and sensitation of researchers
• Ensuring quality seed and planting material through
public- private partnership with farmers
• Equitable flow of benefits to different stakeholders
• Conservation of farmers varieties, land races, wild
relatives etc. by involving local bodies
• Bringing different stakeholders together to work in
synergy supported by enabling policies for PPP
• Undertake an evaluation of the benefits of providing
rights to the farmers


Successful partnership entails
• Trust amongst partners
• Enabling policies
• Adequate funding support
• Dynamic R&D
• Effective value chain

This will lead to a win-win situation for farmers’,
breeder’s, communities and industries

C1.2. Private and public interests: farmers' rights and breeders' rights. Indian experience

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