Monsanto verdict will bring in crop innovation: industry

Experts and a section of the seed industry have hailed the Supreme Court ruling on Monsanto’s Bt cotton seeds, saying that the invalidation of the order by a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court would help encourage innovation in crop sciences.

“We have been saying all along that the division bench was totally wrong. Glad that the apex court has finally struck it down,” said CD Mayee, former director of the Central Institute of Cotton Research in Nagpur and a renowned cotton scientist in the country.

“If we were to deny intellectual property, who would bring in modern technologies to the country. The world of crop science research has gone beyond conventional biotechnology. There are newer gene editing technologies like Crispr, which have shown much promise,” Mayee said. He said even Indian scientists, working with modern technologies were totally demoralised following the division bench’s intervention.

Bayer happy

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for German chemicals and pharma giant Bayer AG, which acquired Monsanto last year, said the company was happy that the apex court had vacated the Division Bench’s order. “The Supreme Court has restored the order of the Single Judge bench of the Delhi High Court which prima facie validates our patent,” the spokesperson said.

Bayer said it was confident of defending any challenge to the patent “by presenting solid scientific evidence and seek(ing) adjudication by the trial court on the issue of infringement of the patent by the disputing seed companies.”

Similarly, Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSSI), which represents many seed companies, mostly multinationals, said the verdict has validated that patents are integral to innovation. “This seems to be a pro-farmer and pro-technology ruling that will have a long-term and positive impact on Indian agriculture.

Agri-biotechnology holds immense promise to an agrarian country like India and the ruling will encourage the development of new seed technologies, agri processes and new technology platforms that will benefit Indian farmers, which, in turn, will improve the competitiveness of India’s farm economy, said FSSI chairman M Ramasami in a statement.

‘A shot in the arm’

The Alliance for Agri Innovation (AAI), a newly-formed agri-tech industry body of which Indian seed firms including Rasi Seeds and Shriram Bioseed apart from MNCs like Syngenta and Bayer are members, welcomed the verdict and said the court recognised that products of biotechnological processes such as man-made DNA constructs are patentable in India.

Intellectual property, whether global or Indian, needs protection and this verdict is a shot-in-the-arm to India’s agri-biotech industry, which has been looking to improve Indian cotton farmers’ competitiveness, said AAI Executive Director Shivendra Bajaj.

Meanwhile, farm activist Kavitha Kuruganti of the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture, said the case, which was primarily fought between Monsanto and Nuzhiveedu Seeds, was not just a mercantile matter between two companies. It had price implications for poor cotton farmers, she said. Also, the apex court has merely asked the Single Bench to adjudicate the matter, she pointed out.

Ashwani Mahajan, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch’s national co-convenor, on the other hand, urged the central government to see whether the Indian patents Act has shortcomings that were being exploited by Monsanto.

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