Farmers' privilege under attack

This article from GRAIN looks at the impact of PVP (plant variety protection) legislation on farmers’ rights to save seeds, the so called ‘farmers’ privilege’. The author argues that PVP legislation is eroding this privilege, thus threatening food security, in an attempt by breeders to use IPRs to control the market for their products.

The article contains a useful, if selective, country by country guide to PVP restrictions on the farmers’ privilege which might include one or more of the following:

• farmers are prohibited from saving seeds of certain crops
• only certain farmers (e.g. those with a specific farm size or income level) can enjoy the privilege
• farmers have to pay an additional royalty to the breeder for any seed that they save on the farm
• farmers can save seed, but not exchange it (they can only grow it on their own farm)
• farmers can save seed and exchange it, but they can not sell it
• farmer can save, exchange and sell seeds, but only without using the name of the variety