Abstract

The paper encapsulates the position of Farmer’s rights in the legislation concerning Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer’s Rights Act, 2001. India was confronted with an option to adopt UPOV model or go through its own legislative draft proposal. The model of UPOV was rejected by India due to the fact that rights of the farmers were not protected and instead the entire focus was on breeder’s rights. The paper is a step forward to argue that the rights of the farmers are at different pedestal than the rights of the breeders especially in a country like India. there is a need to understand the history of PPVFRA legislation in terms of what were its loopholes and how it overcame major impediments. It is imperative to understand that the Farmers rights under intellectual property regime should be protected because with respect to plant genetic resources they do not have in depth scientific understanding but they certainly understand the paramount importance of plant genetic resources in agricultural field because its variability is a potential factor and this cannot be ignored. Moreover, from a long period of time the traditional knowledge which the farmer acquires in terms of selection of plant variety, improvising it and sustainable use of the same should be treated at par with intellectual inputs as this is certainly a monumental benefaction from the farming community. The paper discusses the main impediments of the legislation and suggest some measures to improvise the same.

Keywords: Protection of IPR, Plant varieties, Benefit sharing, UPOV, Breeders, Farmers