India urged to put the rights of poor farmers above big business and reject UPOV membership

Press briefing: Thursday 17 October 2002, 1:30pm in the library of Press Room II, Palais des Nations, CH – 1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland

17 October 2002 – Geneva -Today leading international organisations, ActionAid and Consumers International join forces with Gene Campaign India, to urge the Indian Government to take the lead for developing countries by resisting pressure to join the Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV). The briefing comes at a crucial time, as next week members of UPOV, the organisation that deals with Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on new plant varieties, will meet to discuss India’s membership.

“If India joins UPOV it could spell disaster for millions of the country’s poorest farmers. India has the opportunity to act as a trailblazer for other developing countries who are also being forced to join. It must resist pressure to adopt damaging international legislation that would shift control over seed production and supply away from farmers and into the hands of multi-national corporations,” said Dr Sahai from Gene Campaign, an Indian NGO that has spearheaded the battle for farmers’ rights in India.

At next week’s UPOV Council meeting the fate of India’s application to join UPOV will be decided upon. Once a member, the country would have to abandon its current national plant breeders and IPR legislation which recognises farmers rights and instead impose ‘one size fits all’ international legislation. Developed in Europe, the legislation imposed by UPOV favours corporate breeders, such as Monsanto and Syngenta. It is most suited to the highly mechanised and industrialised agriculture of large farmers in the developed world and is completely at odds with small subsistence farming predominant in poor countries.

In a country where nearly 70 per cent of people depend on agriculture to make a living, India’s membership of UPOV would have a huge impact. India’s current legislation, is the only one in the world to give farmers rights the same recognition as those of plant breeders. This takes advantage of the flexibility granted by the WTO’s TRIPS agreement which, whilst making it mandatory for developing countries to develop IPR legislation that protects breeders of plant varieties, it does not specifically require countries to adopt UPOV. Instead, developing countries are free to decide on legislation that best suits their needs.

“India’s priority must be to ensure the self-reliance of its farming communities, so that they can continue to provide affordable food for the people and make a living. The UPOV style of legislation would protect the rights of big business, while leaving poor farmers out in the cold,” added Ruchi Tripathi, food rights campaigner at ActionAid.
Continued….

“India should take advantage of the flexibility that the WTO/TRIPs agreement provides and stick to its own IPR legislation instead of accepting UPOV as the only option. If India gives up, other developing countries, also under pressure to join UPOV, will be in a weaker position. Joining UPOV would play into the hands of multi-nationals, helping them to control food production and force up food prices, with consumers footing the final bill,” said Dr Sothi Rachagan, Regional Director of Consumers International, Asia Pacific.

What is wrong with UPOV?

Plant breeders rights and intellectual property rights on crops made possible by UPOV legislation could threaten food security and poor farmers ability to make a living by:
• restricting farmers’ rights to save, grow and sell seed
• reducing access to seed and genetic resources
• making seeds more expensive for small farmers due to royalty payments and restrictive contracts with companies
• reducing plant varieties available for cultivation
• favouring large scale industrialised agriculture over small-scale subsistence farming
• allowing large multi-national companies to monopolise the seed industry
• discounting the contribution of farmers in breeding and preserving plant varieties over generations

ActionAid, Consumers International and Gene Campaign are calling on India to take the lead for developing countries by rejecting UPOV and encouraging poor countries to draft their own legislation that protects poor farmers and national food security.

Ends.

For more information please contact: Maya Vaughan, Consumers International, mobile: + 44 (0) 7974 922 703

Spokespersons/Interviewees available:
Dr Suman Sahai, Gene Campaign India
Ruchi Tripathi, ActionAid
Rajeswari Kanniah, Consumers International, Asia Pacific Office
Dr. Sothi Rachagan, Consumers International, Asia Pacific Office

Notes to editors

ActionAid is one of the UK’s largest development agencies. It works with over five million of the world’s poorest people in more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Consumers International supports, links and represents consumer groups and agencies all over the world. It has a membership of more than 250 organisations in almost 115 countries. It strives to promote a fairer society through defending the rights of all consumers, including poor, marginalized and disadvantaged people.

Gene Campaign is a leading research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, working on the issues of bio-resources, intellectual property rights, indigenous knowledge, farmers' rights and community rights. It is a grassroots level organisation working in 17 states in India and its work is focussed on ensuring food and livelihood security for rural and tribal communities