Plant breeders’ rights (PBR) or plant variety protection (PVP) is a time-limited intellectual right on a newly developed plant variety. PVP helps to stimulate breeders to innovate and release the newly developed plant variety as a solution for farmers to cope with their challenges including climate change. The UPOV 91 act is recognized as the most advanced international standard for plant variety protection with a balanced system to provide benefits for breeders and socio-economy including farmers. The scope of breeders’ rights does not cover research and development purposes and acts done privately and not for commercial purposes while farm-saved seeds are an optional exception of breeders’ rights.
Ref: https://www.upov.int/portal/index.html.en
Farmers’ rights refer to a concept outlined in Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Farmers should have the right to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seeds/propagating material, subject to national law and as appropriate (Article 9.3 of ITPGRFA).
East West Seed believes that a PVP should acknowledge the rights of farmers, who remain free to save, use, and exchange seeds for their own use. We at East-West Seed fully support a robust PVP system following the UPOV 91 act and also believe that a strong PVP system will help to provide the benefits for both farmers and breeders.
We are supportive of the complementarity of the formal and informal seed sector. In the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Tanzania, we have a pool of smallholder farmers who participate in variety evaluation and selection. They are given training on good agronomic practices, pest and disease management, recording, and trial management.
In Indonesia, there is a collaboration with KTNA (Kontak Tani Nelayan Andalan) – Indonesian National Outstanding Farmers and Fishermen Association involving the introduction of TSS shallots, providing a learning center and training for SIPINDO, an app to link farmers to the supply chain.
In the Philippines, we collaborate with seven (7) farmers’ cooperatives with membership numbering to 4,760 farmers in contract seed growing. These cooperatives produce ninety-nine percent (99%) of the target seed production in the country. The average area per grower is 3,900 square meters.
The Knowledge Transfer Team in the Philippines implemented the High Value Vegetable Production using the Natural Farming System Technology Project. They worked with a good number of local farmer organizations in target provinces.
East-West Seed brings a wider choice to farmers. We showcase profitable and sustainable production systems (using commercial seeds). It is, however, the farmers’ decision if they step away from farm-saved seeds towards high-quality commercial seeds. For farmers trying to develop a more competitive place in their rapidly transforming markets (as the economy develops, consumer demand for quality), they need both the marketable and agronomic traits which commercial seeds offer.
