Farmers' rights
Topic: International Trade Policy, WTO and Intellectual Property · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Farmers' rights are the legal rights of farmers to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share and sell their farm produce. This includes seed of varieties protected by plant breeders. The one exception is that farmers cannot sell such seed as branded seed, meaning seed packed and labelled under the breeder's registered name. India gives these rights under Section 39 of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act 2001. It is a sui generis law, a system of its own made for India's needs, and India chose it instead of the UPOV 1991 model. These rights balance the breeder's reward against the farmer's age-old practice of saving seed.
Example
In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Gujarat potato farmers for growing its registered FL-2027 variety, which it uses for Lay's chips. After protests, PepsiCo withdrew the cases. In 2021, the PPV&FR Authority revoked the variety's registration, and that decision was then challenged in the Delhi High Court.
Don't confuse with
- Breeders' rights: these give the developer of a new variety exclusive rights over its commercial seed. Farmers' rights are the exception that protects what farmers themselves do.
Related concepts
- Copyright
- Trademark
- Industrial design
- Trade secret
- Layout-design of integrated circuits
- Geographical indication
- Plant variety protection
- Biopiracy
- Access and benefit sharing