From farmers’ rights to the rights of peasants: seeds and the biocultural turn

Abstract

In light of the ongoing agrobiodiversity erosion process, we delve into the history of crop genetic resources governing instruments to show how the international agrobiodiversity regime has evolved from a limited appreciation of the contribution of farmers/peasants to a broader recognition of the critical role indigenous peoples, local communities, and farmers play in shaping and cultivating agrobiodiversity. We explore the genesis and development of various international soft and hard law instruments that make up this international agrobiodiversity regime. We focus on the period stretching from the 1983 Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources, to the 2018 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The reflexion is organised around three lines. First, we show the advent of the concept of “farmers’ rights” and underline its initial indeterminacy. Then, we move on to the issue of farmers/peasants in the aftermath of the Convention on Biological Diversity and analyse the crystallisation of debates around incentivising and driving on-farm maintenance of crop genetic resources. Finally, we conclude by outlining the new framework offered by biocultural approaches to rethink peasants’ rights.