India's plant variety and farmers' rights legislation: potential impact on stakeholder access to genetic resources

Is India's PVP legislation leading to the under-utilisation of genetic resources?

This paper explores the possible implications of establishing IPR regimes that simultaneously try to protect the rights of breeders and farmers on the utilisation and exchange of genetic resources posing the question “Could the attempt to distribute ownership rights to various stakeholders pose the threat of an anti-commons, where resources are under utilised due to multiple ownership?”

The author examines India’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001 which tries to incorporate the interests of various stakeholders, including private sector breeders, public sector institutions, non-governmental organisations and farmers, within the property rights framework. India's Act allows four types of varieties to be registered reflecting the interests of actors:

New Variety
Extant Variety
Essentially Derived Variety
Farmers' Variety

The author argues that although this multiple rights system aims to equitably distribute rights, it could pose problems of overlapping claims and result in complicated bargaining requirements for utilisation of varieties. This in turn could lead to the anti-commons scenario of underutilisation of resources.

The paper concludes that India and other developing nations, in seeking to achieve the important goal of recognising farmers. rights, must not overlook the need for promoting exchange of agricultural resources. Advanced nations must recognise that compelling developing countries to grant breeders rights could result in systems that run counter to their interests. Developed and developing countries must make a concerted effort to ensure that emerging IPR regimes do not restrict stakeholder access to genetic resources.

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India's plant variety and farmers' rights legislation: potential impact on stakeholder access to genetic resources