TY  - GEN
N2  - Farmers' and breeders' access to a genetic diversity is essential for food system sustainability. The implementation of international agreements regulating access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) varies substantially between countries. Here, we examine why some countries implement a restrictive access governance regime, taking Ethiopia as a case. Drawing on commons theory and historical institutional analysis, we analyze historical, political, and economic factors that have shaped Ethiopia's access regime. Based on interviews with key actors and stakeholders and document analysis, we identify three overarching ideational and material factors that can explain Ethiopia's current policy: (a) the influence of narratives about Ethiopia as a biodiversity treasure trove on the Ethiopian cultural identity; (b) the economic importance of agriculture based on PGRFA with origin in the country; and (c) the political influence of the genetic resource movement that promotes farmers' rights as acounter measure to stringent intellectual property rights (IPR), and on‐farm PGRFA management as complimentary to ex situ conservation and formal seed system development.The Ethiopian case illustrates that countries' governance of access to PGRFA must be understood in connection with, and not in isolation from, IPR regimes and the historical, political, and cultural role of PGRFA in the country in question.
AB  - Farmers' and breeders' access to a genetic diversity is essential for food system sustainability. The implementation of international agreements regulating access to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) varies substantially between countries. Here, we examine why some countries implement a restrictive access governance regime, taking Ethiopia as a case. Drawing on commons theory and historical institutional analysis, we analyze historical, political, and economic factors that have shaped Ethiopia's access regime. Based on interviews with key actors and stakeholders and document analysis, we identify three overarching ideational and material factors that can explain Ethiopia's current policy: (a) the influence of narratives about Ethiopia as a biodiversity treasure trove on the Ethiopian cultural identity; (b) the economic importance of agriculture based on PGRFA with origin in the country; and (c) the political influence of the genetic resource movement that promotes farmers' rights as acounter measure to stringent intellectual property rights (IPR), and on‐farm PGRFA management as complimentary to ex situ conservation and formal seed system development.The Ethiopian case illustrates that countries' governance of access to PGRFA must be understood in connection with, and not in isolation from, IPR regimes and the historical, political, and cultural role of PGRFA in the country in question.
T1  - Against the grain?A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia
AU  - Westengen, Ola T.
AU  - Mulesa, Teshome H.
LA  - eng
ID  - 41875
KW  - Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
KW  - Commons governance
KW  - Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
KW  - International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)
SN  - 1747-1796
TI  - Against the grain?A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia
LK  - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jwip.12142
UR  - https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jwip.12142
ER  -