@article{41880,
      recid = {41880},
      author = {Patnaik, Archana and Jongerden, Joost and Ruivenkamp,  Guido},
      title = {Rights or ability : Access to plant genetic resources in  India},
      pages = {19 pages},
      abstract = {The difficulties that stakeholders face in accessing plant  genetic resources have been a concern of many scholars  since the introduction of intellectual property rights. One  of these issues is that of access, which is mostly  approached from a rights perspective. Here it is argued  that such a rights perspective limits a critical reflection  on the possibilities for enhancing accessibility to the  Plant Genetic Resources (PGRs) on three grounds and to go  beyond this limitation, we introduce an ability  perspective. The ability perspective brings into focus how  farmers organise their access to PGRs and is researched in  four PGRs conservation banks in India; one ex situ and  three in situ. An informal system of conservation (in situ)  and sharing through informal networks is found to provide  better access mechanisms for the small and marginal farmers  in India, while access to conserved resources stored at the  three in situ banks created biosocial relations and  biosocial commons. However, each case studied had certain  disadvantages in respect of granting access to the farmers,  so additional mechanisms to facilitate better access to the  conserved resources are suggested.},
      url = {http://tind.wipo.int/record/41880},
}