What Should Farmers’ Rights Look Like? The Possible Substance of a Right

Kamalesh Adhikari,Evan Keast,Jay Sanderson,Kieran Tranter,Susannah Chapman,Justin Malbon,Xan Chacko,Fran Humphries,Daniel Robinson,Edwin Bikundo,Michelle Rourke,Charles Lawson,Hope Johnson

doi:10.3390/agronomy11020367

Abstract

Farmers’ Rights formally appeared in the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) as a means of recognising the past, present, and future contributions of farmers in conserving, improving, and making available the plant genetic materials that are important for food and agriculture. Discussions have been underway under the auspices of the ITPGRFA’s Governing Body with the recent Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers’ Rights (AHTEG-FR) collecting together views, experiences, and best practices to produce an inventory and options for encouraging, guiding, and promoting the realisation of Farmers’ Rights. While this is useful, this article reports on the outcomes of a workshop that applied a different methodology. Our purpose was to identify what could be and should be the substance of Farmers’ Rights so that the policy substance drives the implementation rather than the AHTEG-FR’s retro-fitting Farmers’ Rights to existing views, best practices, and measures. The contribution of this article is to develop and set out a list of possible substantive Farmers’ Rights as a contribution and foundation for further consultations and negotiations.

Highlights

Farmers’ Rights formally appeared in law as an element of the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations’ (FAO, Rome, Italy) International Treaty on PlantGenetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, Rome, Italy) (Table 1) (Article 9).The conception of “Farmers’ Rights” is to recognise the past, present, and future contributions of farmers in conserving, improving, and making available the genetic materials used in agriculture (Preamble and Article 9.1), as distinct from the “Farmers’ Privilege” to save, reuse, and exchange seeds set out in the International Union for the Protection ofNew Varieties of Plants (UPOV, Geneva, Switzerland) 1991 (Article 15.2) and UPOV 1978(Article 5)
The Contracting Parties agree that the responsibility for realizing Farmers’ Rights, as they relate to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, rests with national governments. In accordance with their needs and priorities, each Contracting Party should, as appropriate, and subject to its national legislation, take measures to protect and promote Farmers’ Rights, including: protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; and the right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture
The questions were based on work by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute and framed around the elements of Farmers’. Rights as they are presented in the ITPGRFA: the protection of traditional knowledge; the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits; the right to participate in making decisions; and any rights that farmers have to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds and other propagating material [29] (paras. 6 and 9 and Appendix 1 (Question 9))

Summary

Introduction

Farmers’ Rights formally appeared in law as an element of the Food and Agriculture. Organization of the United Nations’ (FAO, Rome, Italy) International Treaty on Plant. In accordance with their needs and priorities, each Contracting Party should, as appropriate, and subject to its national legislation, take measures to protect and promote Farmers’ Rights, including: protection of traditional knowledge relevant to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; the right to equitably participate in sharing benefits arising from the utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture; and the right to participate in making decisions, at the national level, on matters related to the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted to limit any rights that farmers have to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed/propagating material, subject to national law and as appropriate. Follows the outcomes of the workshop addressing the substance of Farmers’ Rights and listing a range of possible rights in appropriate rights language that could be a framework for future consultations and negotiations about Farmers’ Rights

The ITPGRFA’s Farmers’ Rights

The Post-ITPGRFA Developments

Findings

Conclusions