Comments
Professor Micheal Blakeney, School of Law, University of Western Australia, has stressed on the need for registering conventional crop varieties under Protection Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPV & FR) Act.
Speaking at a workshop held at the College of Horticulture (CoH), Kerala Agricultural University, he said GI registration as such does not confer any right or bestow benefits to farmers, whereas registration of crop varieties under under PPV & FR Act confers the rights and benefits on registered owners. “I am surprised to see that only one-fifth of the 100-odd race varieties in Wayanad is registered as varieties. While a GI tag could help the marketing value of the product concerned, registration under PPV & FR Act protects the right of the registered owner on the variety concerned, which is far more important,” he said.
KAU Vice-Chancellor R Chandra Babu said that retrieving long-established conventional knowledge in farming would help create farmer-driven, sustainable agriculture. Though India is among the first countries in the world to enact the PPV & FR Act, farmers’ lack of awareness on legal aspects is exploited by multinational companies and, hence, it is imperative to educate farmers on the legal implications and IP rights.
KAU’s consistent efforts to guide farmers towards national recognition for plant genome conservation and GI registration have been repeatedly appreciated, and activities in the IP sector will be appropriately strengthened, he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.