News

The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has released preliminary findings of research conducted in Zambia: “Which way forward for Zambia’s smallholder farmers: Green Revolution input subsidies or agro-ecology?” The research is part of a three year multi-country programme looking at the impacts of the Green Revolution on small-scale farmers in southern Africa, with a particular focus on seed and soil fertility.

UPOV will be meeting in Geneva for its Autumn session from 26^th – 29^th October 2015. Its Administrative and Legal Committee (CAJ) will meet on 26th October and 27^th October while its main rule-making body, the Consultative Committee (CC) will meet on 28^th October.

A new publication by Sangeeta Shashikant and François Meienberg describes the interrelations between the International Treaty, its Article 9 on Farmers' Rights, and relevant instruments of UPOV and WIPO.

107 farmers’ seeds networks are calling on governments to support their movement,  based on the principles of Food Sovereignty. As long as the Treaty is not reformed to fully apply articles 5, 6 and 9, they will continue to create their own multilateral exchange system between peasants.  

The submission to the ITPGRFA by Oxfam (Netherlands), Asociación para la Naturaleza y el Desarrollo Sostenible (Asociación ANDES, Peru), Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT, Zimbabwe), Southeast Asia Regional Initiatives for Community Empowerment (SEARICE, Vietnam), Centre for Genetic Resources (Netherlands, Wageningen University and Research Centre, CGN-WUR) focuses on the knowledge, views, experiences and best practices on the implementation of Farmers’ Rights, as set up in Article 9 of the International Treaty.

By Carlos M. Correa (University of Buenos Aires), with contributions from Sangeeta Shashikant (Third World Network) and François Meienberg > (Berne Declaration)

Published by: Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES) and its member organisations: Berne Declaration, Development Fund, SEARICE, Third World Network

(Abstract) The importance of seed provisioning in food security and nutrition, agricultural development and rural livelihoods, and agrobiodiversity and germplasm conservation is well accepted by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. The role of farmer seed networks is less well understood and yet is central to debates on current issues ranging from seed sovereignty and rights for farmers to GMOs and the conservation of crop germplasm. In this paper we identify four common misconceptions regarding the nature and importance of farmer seed networks today.

(From the Abstract) The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) has traditionally been skeptical toward the African Intellectual Property Organization's (OAPI) approval in 1999 of a plant variety protection that was compatible with UPOV 1991, a convention adopted by the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. Recently, however, ARIPO has been rushing through a plant variety protection (PVP) protocol, that in April 2014 was found by the UPOV Council to be in conformity with UPOV 1991.

Abstract: Intellectual property protections on seeds have increased dramatically in recent decades, from the granting of patent-like protections on certain types of seeds in 1970 to the enforcement of contract provisions for seeds beyond the first sale in 2013. During this same period, the seed industry has experienced rapid consolidation.

Member states of African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) have adopted a protocol for the protection of new varieties of plants. The measure is aimed at modernising African agricultural practices, but some say it comes at the expense of age-old traditional farming practices, such as saving and re-using seed.

The protocol adopted during a diplomatic conference held in Arusha, Tanzania, on 6 July is called the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants. [Note: The final text is not yet publicly available.]