News

In advance of an Expert Meeting to review Draft Regulations for the Implementation of the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the Secretariat of the African Regional Intellectual Property Office (ARIPO) released a draft adverse to the interests of small farmers. The Expert Meeting met in Harare from 14 to 16 June 2016.

Attended by some 60 government officials from the 19 ARIPO Member States, the African Seed Trade Association, foreign entities such as the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the European Union’s Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) and the French Association for Seed and Seedlings (GNIS), the meeting, for the first time, included three members of the African civil society - the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM- Zimbabwe).

In advance of an Expert Meeting to review Draft Regulations for the Implementation of the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the Secretariat of the African Regional Intellectual Property Office (ARIPO) released a draft that is adverse to the interests of small farmers.

Draft Regulations to implement the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants released by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) are generating controversy for its inconsistency with the Arusha Protocol and its adverse impact on the sovereign rights of ARIPO members. 

Representatives of 19 African countries who are members of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) will meet in Harare, Zimbabwe 14-17th June 2016, to adopt draft Regulations intended to implement the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Arusha Protocol).

Seed legislation is under review in Tanzania with a view to changing this in order to further expand the role of the private sector in the commercial seed sector. This law reform is mainly targeted at the seed marketing laws (Seed Act of 2003 and its regulations of 2007) and revision of its Plant Breeder’s Rights legislation.

More than 50 civil development, faith-based and sustainable agriculture organisations  have written a letter to Members of the US Congress urging them to reject the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP).

Seed can be an important entry point for promoting productivity, nutrition and resilience among small- holder farmers. While investments have primarily focused on strengthening the formal sector, this article documents the degree to which the informal sector remains the core for seed acquisition, especially in Africa. Conclusions drawn from a uniquely comprehensive data set, 9660 observations across six countries and covering 40 crops, show that farmers access 90.2 % of their seed from

Allan Dawson from Manitoba Cooperator reports how  private investigators in Canada are helping the seed trade enforce plant breeders’ rights. New plant breeder rules under UPOV ’91 in Canada give seed companies the option of tracking down those who infringe on those rights through the entire grain system.

News Ghana reports Food Sovereignty Ghana calling on its Parliament to completely withdraw the UPOV-compliant Plant Breeders' Bill and replace it with a "sui generis" plant variety protection (PVP) system suitable to Ghana’s conditions.