Agricultural Innovation and the Protection of Traditional Rice Varieties : Kerala a Case Study

Agricultural Innovation and the Protection of Traditional Rice Varieties : Kerala a Case Study

Journal article

11 pages

2571-581X

In an endeavor to promote agricultural innovation, the Government of India introducedtwo pieces of legislation: (i) the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act,2001, which provide for the registration of traditional crop varieties as farmers’ varieties,and for the sharing of benefits when those varieties are incorporated into new commercialvarieties; and (ii) the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection)Act 1999, which provides for the registration of indications to promote the marketingof goods which derive their quality and characteristics from their geographical origin.This article tests the effectiveness of this legislation inpromoting agricultural innovation,reporting on a survey of 401 farmers of traditional rice varieties in Kerala, South WestIndia. The study revealed that farmers were either unaware of the legislation, or unawareof its functions. They have not been much involved in the registration of farmers’ varietiesand have not made any benefit-sharing claims in relation to the varieties which havebeen registered. They have tended to confuse the registration of geographical indicationswith the registration of farmers’ varieties. This suggests, as a first step, the necessity forawareness raising about the purposes of both pieces of legislation with Indian farmers.

This resource was extracted from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

Published in : Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 3 (2020).

Lausanne, Switzerland : Frontiers Media, 2020.

eng