Dr. Manmohan Sharma and Dr. R.K. Salgotra
Farming community in India guarantees our food security by producing and supplying 80-85 per cent of the seeds of different crops. The breeding activities and exploitation of new varieties are the decisive factors for improving rural income and their overall economic development. Since the process of varietal improvement, maintenance and multiplication is long and expensive, therefore, it is important to provide an effective system for the protection of plant varieties and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants. In this context, the rights of the farmers and the plant breeders need to be guarded. It has been considered particularly necessary to recognize the rights of the farmers in respect of their contributions made in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of new plant varieties.
The Govt. of India enacted “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001” adopting a sui generis system. The Indian legislation, besides being in conformity with UPOV, 1978, has sufficient provisions to protect the interests of public/private sector breeding institutions and the farmers. Under Farmers’ Exemption, a farmer is entitled to produce, save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act. However, farmers have to be sensitized regarding the rights and incentives provided to them under present regime of intellectual property rights. To implement the provisions of PPV&FR Act, 2001 Act, the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, established the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority on 11th November, 2005.
Farmers’ rights under PPV&FR Act, 2001
PPV&FR Act, 2001 acknowledges role of farmers in conserving genetic diversity, their poor economic means to buy seeds for every sowing, their poor legal literacy and honours their traditional rights on seed. It provides several rights to the farmers entitling them for equitable share of benefits arising from new varieties in future. These rights include:
* Farmers’ Right to register traditional varieties: Farmer who has developed a new variety shall be entitled for registration and other protection under PPV&FR Act, 2001 in the same manner as a breeder of a variety.
* Farmers’ Right for reward and recognition: Farmer who is engaged in the conservation of genetic resources of land races and wild relatives of economicaly important plants and their improvement through selection and preservation shall be entitled in the prescribed manner for recognition and reward from the Gene Fund provided that material so selected and preserved has been used as donors of genes in varieties registered under this act.
* Farmers’ Right on seed: Farmer shall be entitle to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange and share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this act in the same manner as he was entitled before the coming into force of this act provided that the farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under this act.
* Farmers’ Right for benefit sharing: New varieties developed by using farmers’ varieties or their derivatives when become popular may lead to huge profit to Plant Breeders’ Right (PBR) holder. The Act provides for equitable sharing of the benefits earned from the new variety with those farmers or communities who contributed for the development of new variety by sharing parents.
* Farmers’ Right to get compensation for the losses caused by the registered variety: The PPV and FR Act, 2001 has created a provision to check unfair marketing practices by exaggerating claims on the performance of new variety. In the event of farmers not able to achieve the claimed performance PBR-holder will be liable to pay compensation to the affected farmers.
* Farmers’ Right to receive compensation for the undisclosed use of traditional varieties: In case breeder of a new variety fails to disclose the correct identity of parental variety while registration and claim either by the farmers or community is proved, they will be eligible for compensation which would be awarded and paid from the National Gene Fund.
* Farmers’ Right for seeds of registered varieties: In case the PBR-holder does not satisfy the demand of farmers for quality seeds of registered varieties at reasonable prices three years after the registration, they have the right to take up the issue with PPV&FR authority and the authority has provision to initiate remedial measures.
* Farmers’ Right for receiving free services: The Act totally exempts farmers from paying any fees such as registration fee, test fee, fee for renewal of registration, fees for opposition and benefit claim, etc.
* Farmers’ Right for protection against innocent infringement: This provision has been provided considering poor literacy prevailing among farmers and to discourage legal harassment through infringement proceedings by the seed companies.
The strong Farmers’ Rights provision in the Act will keep the farming community rolling, alive and strong viable competitors to corporate sectors.
Community rights
* It is compensation to village or local communities for their significant contribution in the evolution of variety which has been registered under the Act.
* Any person/group of persons/governmental or nongovernmental organization, on behalf of any village/local community in India, can file in any notified centre, claim for contribution in the evolution of any variety.
Benefit sharing:
The benefit sharing is one of the most important ingredients of the farmers’ rights. Section 26 provides benefits sharing and the claims can be submitted by the citizens of India or firms or non-governmental organization (NGOs) formed or established in India. Depending upon the extent and nature of the use of genetic material of the claimant in the development of the variety along with commercial utility and demand in the market of the variety, breeder will deposit the amount in the Gene Fund. The amount deposited will be paid to the claimant from National Gene Fund. The Authority also publishes the contents of the certificate in the Plant Variety Journal of India for the purpose of inviting claims for benefits sharing.
To harness the benefits of the PPV&FR Act, farmers should register their varieties and establish their relationships with PPV&FR authority. The registration of farmers’ varieties is totally free. It will establish intellectual property rights of farmers on their varieties and safeguard their varieties from piracy. It will also enable them to harness commercial potential of such varieties. The Act recognizes the vital issue of on-farm conservation, which is the traditional and most effective method of conserving agro-diversity.
(The author are Scientists, at School of Biotechnology, SKUAST-Jammu)
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