Rights Of Farmers Research Articles

Morphological Description of Chickpea (Cicer arietanum L) Genotypes Using DUS Characterization

The cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum) holds great importance as a pulse crop in India. The identification and classification of diverse genotypes are crucial for implementing effective strategies to improve this crop. This study was conducted to get a comprehensive morphological characterization of desi chickpea genotypes using the DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity, and Stability) descriptors suggested by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Authority, Government of India, in 2018. Environmental conditions, such as temperature, light, humidity, and nutrient availability, can influence plant variability. Different environments impose selective pressures on plants resulting in variability within plant populations. The objective of the investigation was to identify and classify diverse chickpea genotypes based on 17 different qualitative traits observed in a field experiment. Among the 17 DUS traits only one trait exhibited a consistent phenotype (monomorphic), six traits displayed two distinct phenotypes (dimorphic), nine traits exhibited three distinct phenotypes (trimorphic), and only one trait showed more than three phenotypic variations (polymorphic) among all the chickpea genotypes studied. This indicates the presence of significant genetic variability within the chickpea germplasm, offering the potential for assigning different morphological profiles for varietal identification and characterization. In particular, for features like seed and foliar colour, pod size, leaflet size, and seed shape, it was found that a high level of diversity within the chickpea germplasm using Shannon's diversity indices. The characterization of these genotypes enabled the development of distinct profiles for each line, facilitating their identification and evaluation as elite chickpea lines.

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act of India

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Act, 2001 (PPVFR Act 2001) was enacted by India as a part of sui generis system. The Act has 11 chapters and 97 clauses. For a variety to be eligible for registration, it must conform to the criteria of novelty, distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (NDUS) under Section 15 of the act. After the variety had been registered the breeder or the farmer had the right to produce, to sell, to market, to distribute, to import and to export the variety. The period of protection is eighteen years in the case of trees and vines and fifteen years in the case of extant varieties. It also provides equitable benefit sharing. Thus the Indian PVPFR Act provides a balance between plant breeders’ rights along with farmers’ rights and researchers’ rights and thus appears to be an effective sui generis system.

Bridging the Gap Between the Developing and Developed Worlds: An Analysis of International IP Instruments in Agriculture Policy

This paper discusses the present framework of Intellectual Property and looks at how farmer's rights are being protected along with equal importance being given to innovation and development in the area of agriculture. The paper goes on to explain the International Framework for Intellectual Property Rights, by comparatively studying the UPOV convention and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. While the former is a system that is based on heavy patenting thus decreasing access to seeds, the latter explores the incentive provided to farmers to thrive in a sui generis system of crop cultivation. The paper concludes by attempting to balance farmer's privilege with plant breeder's rights offering the readers contrasting perspectives in the system of international intellectual property rights for agriculture.

Protection of Farmers Copyright Rights in a Cleaning Agreement by Regional Government (Study in Clove Production Centers in North Sulawesi)

The protection of clove farmers' rights to clove concession agreement is very important. This is because of the imbalance in making the agreement, where farmers who need money are easily dictated by the buyers (ijon). The debt bondage agreement has allegedly caused many farmers to be trapped in adverse transactions and weakened their economic resilience. This study uses normative juridical methods and surveys in several villages such as Ranomerut, Tincep, Munte, and other clove production centers. The result of the research shows that not yet the maximum protection for civic farmer's rights especially in the bond agreement, there is no special regulation such as local regulation (Perda) which regulate and sanction for the buyer (debtors) that harms the farmer, where the practice is still based on the agreement. Another factor is the weak supervision of local governments (Pemda) and villages against the activities of the bonds so that the peasants become unprotected objects. There is urgent need for supervision by the local government against the practices and agreements of bonds, and firm action against buyers (ijon) that harms the clove business from the farmers. Keywords: agreement, ijon, supervision, loss, clove farmer

Improving efficiency of seed system by appropriating farmer's rights in India through adoption and implementation of policy of quality declared seed schemes in parallel

Indian agriculture is dominated by the marginal and small farmers with very small average land holding size which is further fragmented and scattered into tiny pieces. Contemporary challenges being faced by Indian agriculture are increasing population pressure, diminishing natural resources (land, water and agro-biodiversity), increasing demand of diversified diets, increased frequencies of extreme climate change and increasing cost of production are keep on haunting. To increase production and productivity and to mitigate the adverse effect due to climate change, the regular and timely supply of quality seed of all crops and varieties at affordable prices at local level is prerequisite. The formal seed sector, although contributes in significant manner to make available the quality seed but is not in position to cater the demand of farmers at local level and therefore necessitates the quality seed production and distribution locally by involving farmers. In the present commentary issues have been discussed with regard to the adoption and implementation of quality declared seed policy of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in parallel. The QDS policy can easily accommodate and integrate the registered farmers varieties as per PPV&FR Act (2001) into seed chain effectively and efficiently.

The overlap between the Patents Acts and the plant variety protection & Farmer's Rights Act in India: A seed of doubt

Like many countries, India has opted to protect new plant varieties through a sui generis legislation aimed at protecting new plant varieties. Given the increased use of biotechnology to create genetically modified plants and the fact that these inventions can be protected under patent law, there is the question of overlaps of both legal regimes. These issues of overlap are not new since jurisdictions like the EU have previously witnessed significant litigation on this issue and subsequently incorporated certain safeguards in the EU Biotech Directive to reduce the confusion arising from overlaps between its patent law and its law on plant variety protection. This article will analyse the issues raised in India and propose a framework to resolve the overlaps.

Protection of plant varieties and farmer's rights (PPVFR) act: A review

Protection of plant varieties and farmer's rights act was first passed in India during 2001 and then on 2003 by the Indian Government. India's seed policy until the 1980s restricted the role of the private sector in agriculture. The initial demands for IPRs in agriculture arose with the change in policy that allowed private sector entry into the seed sector with the New Seed Policy of 1988. With the conclusion of the TRIPs agreement there was also external pressure on India to establish PBRs. The Protection of plant varieties and farmer's rights (PPVFR) act in India at least will provide for establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, rights of farmers and plant breeders. This review deals with the various aspects of PPVFR and its origin.

DUS Characterization of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Using Morphological Descriptors and Quality Parameters

India has recently enacted Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) characterization for rice. This paper focuses on DUS characterization using morphological descriptors for 21 rice varieties planted in a randomized block design during two kharif seasons (2007 and 2008). Data were recorded for 60 DUS descriptors (46 qualitative and 14 quantitative) following guidelines from the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Authority (PPV & FRA). Data on quantitative traits were subjected to Combined Over Years Distinctness (COYD) and Combined Over Years Uniformity (COYU) analyses. The descriptors offering the most discrimination were time to 50% heading, decorticated grain shape, and the colour of lemma and palea. The cultivar Sathi, an improved landrace entry, was observed to be the most distinct, with the rarest morphological features. Eight of the 21 qualitative and 8 of the 14 quantitative traits exhibited uniformity as determined by UPOV-recommended levels. Twelve of the quantitative traits were relatively stable as judged by seasonal variation in Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV) and Genotypic Coefficient of Variation (GCV) values. Finally, the varieties were clustered following the eight grouping characteristics recommended by PPV & FRA. All the approaches clustered the improved landrace entities separately from the conventionally bred varieties.

Electrophoretic Discrimination of Maize (Zea maysL.) and French Bean (Phaseolus vulgarisL.) Through Biochemical Analysis

An attempt has been made to establish distinctiveness among twenty two indigenous and two reference varieties of maize (Zea mays L.) along with nine indigenous and two reference varieties of French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) by seed storage protein profiling. It revealed thirty-nine polypeptide bands in maize and fourteen in French bean. Unique distinctive loci were observed in both the crops. Six varieties in maize and four varieties in French bean were discriminated. In maize unique bands of 80 KDa, 50 KDa, 6.2 KDa, 3.5 KDa, 3.7 KDa and 3 KDa and in French bean 5 unique bands of 160 KDa, 77 KDa, 34 KDa, 6.3 KDa and 3 KDa were observed which could establish distinctive ness in the varieties. Dendrogram based on electrophoretic data clustered the maize genotypes in two major groups. Varieties viz. Purvikhera Local-1, Manacot, Chamoli Local and HQPM-1 showed 100% homology. Jaccard similarity coefficient ranged from 31% -100% however dendrogram for French bean reveals 61% genetic similarity. Thus, protein profiling is a simple and useful technique to establish distinctiveness for plant variety identification and it can add value to the data on morphological DUS descriptor as stipulated by PPV and FR (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Right) Authority of India for registration of new plant varieties for gaining farmer's right and breeder's rights.

DUS Characterization for Farmer varieties of rice

For the establishment of the distinctness among Sixty-five landraces of rice, forty three characters were used. Characterization of Sixty-five landraces of rice was done using forty three agro-morphological traits following Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability test (DUS) during kharif season of 2011 at the DRR farm, ICRISAT campus. Out of Sixty-five varieties studied, thirty-two were found to be distinctive on the basis of twenty two essential and twenty four additional characters. This study will be useful for breeders, researchers and farmers to identify and choose the restoration and conservation of beneficial genes for crop improvement and also to seek protection under Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Act.

SSR marker-based DNA fingerprinting and cultivar identification of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Punjab state of India

In India, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer's Rights Act (PPV&FRA, 2001) requires the registration and protection of new and notified/extant plant varieties based on the criteria of distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS) of morphological characteristics. However, these morphological traits have not been able to resolve closely related genotypes. The molecular markers can very well support the DUS testing in such cases. In the present study, therefore, 14 varieties of rice cultivated in Punjab state of India were fingerprinted using 75 simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers. Out of these, 58 primers produced polymorphic profiles, while 13 were monomorphic, 2 revealed null allele and the remaining 2 amplified only from super basmati. In a screen of 7 cultivars, 16 SSR loci produced 17 rare/unique alleles, which provided an opportunity for their unambiguous identification. Cluster analysis based on SSR data clearly distinguished the cultivars into two dist inct groups: comprising non-basmati (group I) and basmati (group II). The cluster pattern was consistent with the pedigree and breeding history of the cultivars.

The Organization in Protecting Farmer's Rights：it's Social Stature and Scope

The Organization in Protecting Farmer's Rights：it's Social Stature and Scope

Livelihood impacts of the conversion of cropland to forest and grassland program

Land use changes induced by the Conversion of Cropland to Forest and Grassland Program are found to provide farm households sampled in four counties from Shaanxi and Qinghai Provinces with increased net profits. This result is found to be robust for a range of discount rates and output price projections. The net present value of the difference in farm profits with and without the Program is found to be positive even when payments made under the Program are subtracted from with Program profits. Variations in the impact of the Program on farm household net profits were observed across the county samples. These results suggest that reversion to pre-Program land uses is unlikely as long as farmer's rights over converted land are well defined and defended.

Rights and Access to Plant Genetic Resources under India's New Law

Recognition of ‘Farmer's Rights’ is an attempt by developing countries to evolve a counterclaim to breeders' Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) promoted under the TRIPs Agreement of the WTO. India is one of the first countries to have granted rights to both breeders and farmers under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001. This multiple rights system aims to distribute rights equitably, but may pose the threat of an ‘anticommons tragedy’ i.e. too many parties independently possessing the right to exclude others from utilising a resource. If under‐utilisation of plant genetic resources results, the Act will have negative consequences for sustaining crop productivity and for the welfare of the very farming communities it seeks to compensate.

Farmer's rights and genetic conservation in traditional farming systems

Crop genetic resources are concentrated in some of the world's poorest farming systems. These resources have been used by industrial countries without compensating farmers. Concerns for equity and conservation have led to proposals to protect crop genetic resources as intellectual property. This paper argues that conventional intellectual property regulations (e.g. utility patents and plant variety protection) should not be used to protect crop genetic resources. It suggests that farmers' rights, as an alternate form of intellectual property rights, be used to indirectly compensate farmers by supporting genetic conservation. It examines methods of in situ conservation for crop genetic resources.