Seed systems and intellectual property rights: an inventory from five sub Saharan African Countries

Many developing countries are in the process of developing or updating their national Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) systems in order to adhere to international agreements. With respect to the agricultural sector in developing countries, the importance of implementing a Plant Variety Protection (PVP) system that suits national and local needs and conditions is of utmost importance. The challenge for developing countries is to create an IPR system that suits both their commercial, national food security, and smallholder farmers’ interests. This report aims to assist in that endeavour by analysing the current status of IPR legislation and regulations regarding seed in five African countries: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda; and the international and regional IPR organisations that encompass them: in particular OAPI and ARIPO. In addition, we investigate the possibilities for, and examples of, a PVP system that creates different levels of protection in order to fit the needs and characteristics of the various seed systems that exist in a given country

Framework for transforming best practices for landrace conservation to policies

Traditional farming systems and conservation of local cultivars and associated indigenous knowledge are under threat and growing pressure resulting in genetic erosion of crop diversity. These systems are an essential component of sustainable crop production, household income and human nutrition for many of the poor farmers found in fragile semiarid ecosystems of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). With the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992, in situ conservation for crops and their related genetic resources has been given prominent mention in global and national policies for biodiversity conservation. In situ strategies are an important and complementary component of the overall agrobiodiversity conservation efforts that aim to conserve not only crop genetic resources but also crop evolutionary processes. However, policy support of the science and practice of in situ conservation, lag behind CBD commitment in much of SSA. The need for activities on in situ conservation of plant genetic resources is emphasized in the CBD and in Agenda 21. Article 2 of the Convention specifically includes reference to domesticated or cultivated species. This is also anticipated in Article 8, which requires signatory nations to “preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity …” Agenda 21 reflects this commitment to in situ conservation as an essential component of sustainable agriculture, and in Chapter 14, notes the need for establishing programmes and policies to strengthen in situ conservation. In its second meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 2) identified implementation of Article 8 of the CBD as a high priority and reaffirmed the importance of regional and international cooperationfor the implementation of this Article. It also stressed the importance of the exchange of relevant information and experience among all stakeholders on measures taken for its implementation (Decision II/7 of COP 2). Many national PGR programmes in SSA are unable to meet their obligations towards in situ (more specifically on-farm) conservation as stated in the CBD and the GPA because of ineffective enabling of national policy environments that do not support traditional farming systems and in situ conservation on-farm. The countries involved in the project were Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Through case studies, the project analysed farming systems in semi-arid ecosystems in these countries, focussing on how these systems supported the conservation of landraces of local and global significance. The methodology described in the present publication was designed within this project to draw out ‘best’ practices on how landraces have been incorporated into farming systems and/or national agricultural policies and biodiversity conservation strategies. On one hand, the farmer or resource user determines what makes the practice the ‘best one’, and they base their choices on a survival strategy or utilitarian point of view. On the other hand, the scientists on the project primarily judged how effective the practices are in conserving agrobiodiversity at different levels. The project attempted to reconcile the two views in developing frameworks for the determination of ‘best practice’

Farmers’ and Breeders’ Rights: Bridging Access to, and IP Protection of, Plant Varieties in Africa

Studies in Africa have shown that saving, using, exchanging and selling farm-saved seed is the main channel through which farmers access seed and planting material. Moreover, these saving and related practices are recognised in international law, mainly through the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty), which many African countries have ratified. These practices are also recognised by, inter alia, obligations at the national level to protect traditional knowledge relevant to seeds and planting material. The standard being employed in developing plant variety protection (PVP) mechanisms in Africa, as with elsewhere in the world, is the 1991 revision of the Convention of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV, 1991). This Convention has, since its inception, been developed with reference to developed-world farming practices. This article looks at how farmers’ rights are enshrined in Africa’s legal frameworks, and the extent to which the current process of developing regional PVP systems on the continent is taking farmers’ rights into account. The article then makes recommendations on how a balance can be struck between farmers’ and breeders’ rights, while still complying with the UPOV 1991 framework

Seed systems and intellectual property rights: an inventory from five sub Saharan African Countries

Many developing countries are in the process of developing or updating their national Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) systems in order to adhere to international agreements. With respect to the agricultural sector in developing countries, the importance of implementing a Plant Variety Protection (PVP) system that suits national and local needs and conditions is of utmost importance. The challenge for developing countries is to create an IPR system that suits both their commercial, national food security, and smallholder farmers’ interests. This report aims to assist in that endeavour by analysing the current status of IPR legislation and regulations regarding seed in five African countries: Burkina Faso, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda; and the international and regional IPR organisations that encompass them: in particular OAPI and ARIPO. In addition, we investigate the possibilities for, and examples of, a PVP system that creates different levels of protection in order to fit the needs and characteristics of the various seed systems that exist in a given country

Opportunities and Threats to Harmonisation of Plant Breeders’ Rights In Africa: ARIPO and SADC. African Journal of International and Comparative Law

Seminário “Microeletrônica e Sociedade: impactos de tecnologias emergentes”, promovido pela Fundação João Pinheiro (FJP), com o apoio da Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP) e da Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG). A partir da esquerda: Fernando Oliveira de Sá Andrade; Sérgio Domingues França; Antônio Luiz Villaça Mendes; Hamilton Parma, presidente da FJP; e Newton Cardoso, governador do Estado de Minas Gerais, por ocasião da chegada do governador, para abertura do seminário