Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority

Why in news?

• Two years after PepsiCo India provoked outrage by suing nine Gujarati farmers for allegedly infringing patent rights by growing its registered potato variety, the company’s registration has been revoked by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights’ Authority (PPV&FRA).

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights’ Act, 2001:

• This Act was enacted to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders, and to encourage the development and cultivation of new varieties of plants.
• The Act grant intellectual property rights to plant breeders, researchers and farmers who have developed any new or extant plant varieties.
• The Intellectual Property Right granted under the Act is a dual right – one is for the variety and the other is for the denomination assigned to it by the breeder.
• The rights granted under this Act are heritable and assignable and only registration of a plant variety confers the right.
• Essentially Derived Varieties (EDV) can also be registered under this Act and it may be new or extant.

Rights under the Act:

• Breeders’ Rights :
  • Breeders will have exclusive rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export the protected variety.
  • Breeder can appoint agent/ licensee and may exercise for civil remedy in case of infringement of rights.
• Researchers’ Rights :
  • Researcher can use any of the registered variety under the Act for conducting experiment or research.
  • This includes the use of a variety as an initial source of variety for the purpose of developing another variety but repeated use needs prior permission of the registered breeder.
• Farmers' Rights:
  • A farmer who has evolved or developed a new variety is entitled for registration and protection in like manner as a breeder of a variety.
  • Farmers variety can also be registered as an extant variety.
  • A farmer can save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 in the same manner as he was entitled before the coming into force of this Act provided farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under the Act.
  • Farmers are eligible for recognition and rewards for the conservation of Plant Genetic Resources of land races and wild relatives of economic plants.
  • There is also a provision for compensation to the farmers for non-performance of variety.
  • Farmer shall not be liable to pay any fee in any proceeding before the Authority or Registrar or the Tribunal or the High Court under the Act.

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority:

• To implement the provisions of the Act the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare established the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority in 2005.
• The Chairperson is the Chief Executive of the Authority. Besides the Chairperson, the Authority has 15 members, as notified by the Government of India.
• Eight of them are ex-officio members representing various Departments/ Ministries, three from SAUs and the State Governments, one representative each for farmers, tribal organization, seed industry and women organization associated with agricultural activities are nominated by the Central Government.

General Functions of the Authority:

• Registration of new plant varieties, essentially derived varieties (EDV) and extant varieties.
• Compulsory cataloging facilities for all variety of plants
• Recognizing and rewarding farmers, community of farmers, particularly tribal and rural community engaged in conservation and improvement
• Preservation of plant genetic resources of economic plants and their wild relatives
• Maintenance of the National Register of Plant Varieties
• Maintenance of National Gene Bank.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding ‘Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights’ Act, 2001’?

1. The Act grant intellectual property rights to plant breeders, researchers and farmers who have developed any new or extant plant varieties

2. The rights granted under this Act are heritable and assignable and only registration of a plant variety confers the right

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer