Adoption of Patented Seeds in India Raises Questions over Preservation of Local Seed Varieties
29 Jun 2006
As Indian farmers increasingly turn to the purchase of patented seed varieties produced by large multinational corporations, concerns over the preservation of indigenous varieties have been growing.
The promise of better yields and higher profits offered by commercially-derived “hybrid” seeds give farmers an economic incentive to purchase those seeds—most of which are under patent protection. However, skeptics of such purchases continue to emphasize that the replacement of indigenous varieties might threaten the biodiversity of India’s crops if farmers discard or fail to preserve seed stocks that have been bred locally over several generations. They also argue that turning to seeds sold by large agricultural corporations makes local farmers dependent on multiple varieties of patented seeds that they must buy each year and cannot save between growing seasons.
The Plant Variety Protection Act (PVP) of 2001 allows farmers to buy, save, sell, and use registered seeds. A separate Seeds Bill, introduced in 2004 and pending, would permit direct contact between foreign companies and small farmers. Critics cite corporate pressures to adopt the bill as an obstacle to the PVP’s protection. The Seeds Bill allows companies to hire farmers to grow proprietary seeds exclusively for the hirer, a method called “contract farming.” Although that might provide farmers immediate returns and short-term economic security, it could compromise their independence as well as the biodiversity of India’s crop plants. The loss of crop biodiversity may have adverse long-term consequences.
V.S. Rao, director of India’s Namdhari Seed, expressed interest in having the Indian government organize and fund research on indigenous seeds. That would check the loss of crop plant biodiversity, and reduce pressure on farmers to switch to patented seeds produced by multinational companies.
Source: Acharya, K. Patented seeds edge out local varieties. Inter Press Service. June 27, 2006.
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