A Critical Examination of Breeders’ Monopoly Rights to the Detriment of Farmers under the Ethiopian Plant Breeders’ Rights Law

Abstract

Agricultural innovations have for long remained outside the domain of Intellectual property rights (IPRs) due to ethical and socioeconomic grounds. With the advent of modern agro- biotechnology, however, the sector is subjected to IPRs. Particularly, the TRIPS Agreement provides that plant varieties (PVP) shall be protected either through patent or an effective soi generic system, or a combination thereof. In this regard, Ethiopia adopted plant breeders’ rights (PBRs’) law in 2006. This article aims at evaluating the monopoly rights of private breeders in comparison with farmers’ rights on the basis of various ethical and socioeconomic factors. Accordingly, the second section overviews the introduction of IPRs in the agricultural sector. Section three deals with PVP under the TRIPS Agreement and the flexibility thereunder. After briefly introducing the Ethiopian PBRs’ law in section four, the pros and cons of PVP is addressed under section five. Section six evaluates farmers’ rights under the Ethiopian PBRs’ law. The last section concludes the article.