This report, The Erosion of Japan’s Traditional Seed Sector Through Misguided Policy, provides an analysis and impact assessment of Japanese seed policies since the mid-20th century. It argues that Japan’s increasing reliance on strict intellectual property regimes — combined with the weakening of public seed institutions and the promotion of biotechnology-driven breeding — has undermined traditional seed systems, farmers’ rights, and long-term seed sovereignty.

The study When Saving Seeds Becomes a Crime, authored by Karine Peschard, Associate Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, aims to document the criminalization of farmers’ rights to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds under plant breeders’ rights laws. This issue is often discussed but seldom studied. The study reviews the modalities of criminalization and their impact on farmers, based on selected case studies. As demonstrated, criminalization is a multilayered set of modalities. Its most overt manifestation is the prosecution of PBR infringement under criminal law, but it also materializes through technological surveillance, harassment, and intimidation.
For readers who are short on time, we have also published a condensed version of the study.

We describe the ruling of the Machakos High Court (Kenya) of November 27, 2025, in which parts of the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act were deemed unconstitutional. Kenya's Seeds and Plant Varieties Act covers both seed legislation and plant breeders' rights. In their successful lawsuit, the plaintiffs challenged articles from both parts of the Act.
In this summary, we focus on the part of the lawsuit that was directed against the Kenyan plant breeders' rights legislation. Kenya is a member of UPOV 91, and its legislation is therefore considered in line with UPOV 91.