DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIA

NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,
LUCKNOW

2019

I.P.R.-2

“Farmers Rights under the Protection of Plant varieties and

Farmers Rights Act”
5 year integrated course at RMLNLU, Lucknow

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Vikas Bhati Utkarsh kumar Prajapati

Assistant professor (Law) Enroll no. - 150101151

Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia 8th Semester

National Law University,

Lucknow.
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to Dr. Vikas

Bhati, Assistant Professor (Law) for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant

encouragement throughout the course. The blessing, help and guidance given by his

time to time shall carry me a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to

embark.

Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents, brother, sisters and friends for their constant

encouragement without which this research paper would not be possible.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1- Introduction

2- The genesis of the Indian legislation

3- Some important definitions

4- Farmer’s rights

5- Conclusion

6- References
 1- Introduction
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act was passed by the Indian
Government in 2001. After India became signatory to the Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPs) in 1994, a legislation was required to be
formulated. Article 27.3 (b) of this agreement requires the member countries to provide for
protection of plant varieties either by a patent or by an effective sui generis system or by any
combination thereof. Thus, the member countries had the choice to frame legislations that
suit their own system and India exercised this option.

2- The genesis of the Indian legislation

In India, agricultural research including the development of new plant varieties has largely
been the concern of the government and public sector institutions. Earlier, India did not have
any legislation to protect the plant varieties and, in fact, no immediate need was felt.
However, after India became signatory to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
Rights Agreement (TRIPs) in 1994, such a legislation was necessitated. Article 27.3 (b) of
this agreement requires the member countries to provide for protection of plant varieties
either by a patent or by an effective sui generis system or by any combination thereof.

Thus, the member countries had the choice to frame legislations suiting their own system and
India exercised this option. The existing Indian Patent Act, 1970 excluded agriculture and
horticultural methods of production from patentability. The sui generis system for protection
of plant varieties was developed integrating the rights of breeders, farmers and village
communities, and taking care of the concerns for equitable sharing of benefits. It offers
flexibility with regard to protected genera/species, level and period of protection, when
compared to other similar legislations existing or being formulated in different countries. The
Act covers all categories of plants, except microorganisms. The genera and species of the
varieties for protection shall be notified through a gazette, after the appropriate rules and by-
laws are framed for the enforcement of the Act.
The objectives of the Act are as follows:
(i) To provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties.
(ii) To provide for the rights of farmers and plant breeders.

(iii) To stimulate investment for research and development and to facilitate growth of the
seed industry.
(iv) To ensure availability of high quality seeds and planting materials of improved varieties
to farmers.
 3- Some important definitions
Some of the important definitions in the context of the Act include the following:
Variety

A plant grouping except microorganisms within a single botanical taxon of the lowest known
rank, which can be

(i) Defined by the expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype of a plant
of that plant grouping;

(ii) Distinguished from any other plant grouping by expression of at least one of the said
characteristics; and

(iii) Considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for being propagated, which remains
unchanged after such propagation and includes propagating material of such variety, extant
variety, transgenic variety, farmers’ variety and essentially derived variety.
Extant variety
A variety available in India which is
(i) Notified under section 5 of Seeds Act, 1966, or
(ii) Farmers’ variety, or
(iii) A variety about which there is common knowledge, or
(iv) Any other variety which is in public domain.
Essentially derived variety
A variety shall be said to be essentially derived when it:

(i) is predominantly derived from such initial variety, or from a variety that itself is
predominantly derived from such initial variety, while retaining the expression of the
essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of such
initial variety;
(ii) Is clearly distinguishable from such initial variety, and

(iii) Conforms (excepting for the differences which result from the act of derivation) to such
initial variety in the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or
combination of genotypes of such initial variety.
Farmer
Any person who
(i) Cultivates crops by cultivating the land himself, or
(ii) Cultivates crops by directly supervising the cultivation of land through any other person.
(iii) Conserves and preserves, severally or jointly, with any person any wild species or
traditional varieties, or adds value to such wild species or traditional varieties through
selection and identification of their useful properties.

4- Farmer’s rights

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPV&FR Act) seeks to address
the rights of plant breeders and farmers on an equal footing. It affirms the necessity of
recognizing and protecting the rights of farmers with respect to the contribution they make in
conserving, improving and making Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) available for the
development of new plant varieties.

The PPV&FR Act recognizes the multiple roles played by farmers in cultivating, conserving,
developing and selecting varieties. With regard to developing or selecting varieties, the Act
refers to the value added by farmers to wild species or traditional varieties/ landraces through
selection and identification for their economic traits. Accordingly, farmers’ rights encompass
the roles of farmers as users, conservers and breeders. Farmers are granted nine specific
rights, which are as under:

Right 1: Access to seed [Section 39(1) (iv)]

Farmers are entitled to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell their farm produce,
including seed of protected varieties, in the same manner as they were entitles to before the
coming into force to the PPV&FR Act. However, farmers are not entitled to sell branded seed
of a variety protected under this Act. Farmers can use farm saved seed from a crop cultivated
in their own.

Right 2: Benefit sharing [Section 26]

Plant breeders and legal entities including farmers who provide Plant Genetic Resources
(PGR) to breeders for developing new varieties shall receive a fair share of benefit from the
commercial gains of the registered varieties. Out of all the national plant variety protection
laws enacted since 2001, the PPV&FR Act is the first that integrates a provision for access
and benefit-sharing (ABS) along with Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBRs). Accession of the
genetic resource used in breeding is permitted under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
However, the PPV&FR Act requires a breeder to make a sworn declaration on the
geographical origin of the genetic resources used in the pedigree of the new variety, and its
accession.

Right 3: Compensation [Section 39(2)]

Registered seed must be sold with the full disclosure of their agronomic, performance under
recommended management conditions. When such seed is sold to farmers but fails to provide
the expected performance under recommended management conditions, the farmer is
eligible to claim compensation from the breeder through the intervention of the PPV&FR
Authority.

Right 4: Reasonable seed price [Section 47]

Farmers have the right to access seed of registered varieties at a reasonable and remunerative
price. When this condition is not met, the breeder’s exclusive right over the variety is
suspended under the provision concerning compulsory licensing, and the breeder is obligated
to license the seed production, distribution and sales of the variety to a competent legal entity.
Most of the laws for plant variety protection have provisions on compulsory licensing of
protected varieties to ensure adequate seed supply to farmers, and several of them also use
unfair pricing as grounds for compulsory licensing.

Right 5: Farmers’ recognition and reward for contributing to conservation [Section

39(i)(iii) & Section 45(2)(C)]

Farmers who have been engaged in PGR conservation and crop improvement, and who have
made substantial contributions in providing genetic resources for crop improvement, receive
recognition and rewards from the national gene fund. The gene fund receives resources from
the implementation of the Act, which in turn are complemented by contribution from national
and international organizations. The expenditures of the fund are earmarked to support the
conservation and sustainable use of PGR, and in this way it can be considered to be a national
equivalent to the global benefit-sharing fund operating within the International Treaty on
Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

Since 2007, the Plant Genome Saviour/Community awards, associated with the national gene
fund, has been rewarding farming communities and individual farmers for their contribution
to in-situ and on farm conservation to the selection of PGR. The Authority in consultation
with Government of India, has established five Plant Genome Saviour Community Awards of
Rs 10 Lakh each along with citation and memento to be conferred every year to the farming
communities for their contribution in the conservation of Plant Genetic Resources.

In accordance with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (Recognition and
Rewards from the Gene Fund) Rules, 2010 the Authority also setup ten Plant Genome
Saviour Farmer Reward of Rs 1 Lakh each with citation & memento and also twenty Plant
Genome Saviour Farmer Recognition annually from 2012-13 to the farmers engaged in the
conservation of the Genetic Resources of the landraces and wild relatives of economics plants
and their improvement through selection and preservation.

Right 6: Registration of farmers’ varieties [Section 39(1) (iii)]

The PPV&FR Act allows for the registration of existing farmers’ varieties that fulfil
requirements for distinctness, uniformity, stability and denomination, but does not include
that of novelty. This right provides farmers with a one-off opportunity for a limited period of
time, from the moment when a crop species is species is included in the crop portfolio under
the PPV&FR Act for registration. Once registered, these varieties are entitled to all PBRs.

Right 7: Prior authorization for the commercialization of essentially derived varieties

[Section 28 (6)]

When farmers’ varieties, whether extant or new, are used by a third party as source material
for the development of an essentially derived variety, the farmers need to provide prior
authorization for its commercialization. Such a process can allow farmers to negotiate the
terms of authorization with the breeder, which may include royalties, benefit-sharing, etc.

Right 8: Exemption from registration fees for farmers [Section 44]

Under PPV&FR Act, farmers have the privilege of being completely exempted from payment
of any kind of fees or other payments that are normally payable for variety registration; tests
for distinctness, uniformity and stability (DUS), and other services rendered by the PPV&FR
Authority; as well as for legal proceedings related to infringement or other causes in courts,
tribunal, etc.

Right 9: Farmer protection from innocent infringement [Section 42]

If a farmer can prove before court that he or she was not aware of the existence of any rights
at the time of an infringement on any such rights, as detailed in the PPV&FR Act, he or she
will not be charged. This provision is made in consideration of the centuries-old unrestrained
rights that the farmers had over the seed of all varieties, the novel nature of the PPV&FR Act
and the poor legal literacy of farmers.

5- Conclusion

The existing Indian Patent Act, 1970 excluded agriculture and horticultural methods of production
from patentability. The sui generis system for protection of plant varieties was developed
integrating the rights of breeders, farmers and village communities, and taking care of the
concerns for equitable sharing of benefits.

PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES (PGRs) are the foundation for the development of a food and
nutritionally secure society. In addition, plants have many uses, including feed, fibre, medicine
and industrial applications. PGRs were treated as the ‘heritage of mankind’ and were shared
freely among nations, till the concerns for conservation of biological diversity were raised by the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which came into force in 1993. The conservation and
sustainable utilization and access to biological diversity were considered as national sovereignty
by CBD. Consequently, many issues regarding the rights of the conservers, users, breeders,
farmers and intellectual property have emerged. During 2001, significant developments have
taken place with respect to the realization of the rights of breeders, farmers and local
communities. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFR) was passed by
the Indian Government.
6- References

1- http://vikaspedia.in/agriculture/policies-and-schemes/crops-related/protection-of-
plant-varieties-and-rights-of-farmers/protection-of-plant-varieties-and-farmers-rights-
act-2001
2- Article- The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act of India by
Pratibha Brahmi*, Sanjeev Saxena and B. S. Dhillon
3- Protection of Plant varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001.