Open supply software program like Linux is well-known and extensively used. The origin of this idea will be traced to the ‘Free Software Movement’, which emphasised customers’ proper to the supply code, to share, to switch, and to distribute modifications.
Richard Stallman, the U.S. programmer who pioneered this concept, additionally developed the General Public License (GPL), the first of the ‘Free and Open Source Software’ licences: it used copyright regulation to guard customers’ rights and stop misappropriation. If a chunk of code is licensed GPL, then modifications to it needs to be GPL as properly; this requirement additionally furthered the use of the licence.
Software and seeds appear as completely different as chalk and cheese – however as programmers have executed for many years, farmers have innovated and shared seeds with none mental property rights (IPR) claims for hundreds of years. Farmers additionally haven’t sought unique rights over seeds and germplasm to stop others from innovating on the seeds. In this regard, software program and seeds even have a robust parallel.
What are plant-breeders’ rights?
But in stark distinction to GPL’s results on the programming neighborhood, the creation of hybrid seeds, the development of the industrial seed business, scientific plant-breeding, and another components conferred plant breeders and builders of latest varieties with the so referred to as plant breeders’ rights (PBR). In this regime, farmers’ rights have been restricted whereas rights-holders might demand royalty on seeds and legally implement PBRs. In some nations, the PBR rules permit rights-holders to limit the unauthorised use of seeds to develop new varieties.
In 1994, the institution of the World Trade Organisation after which the Trade-Related IPR Agreement forged a world IPR regime over plant varieties. TRIPS required nations to offer at the very least one type of IP safety whereas consolidation in the seeds sector raised considerations about the freedom to innovate.
The Green Revolution was spearheaded by public-sector breeding establishments and seeds have been out there as ‘open pollinated varieties’, or as moderately priced hybrids with no restrictions on farmers to domesticate, reuse and share. But the genetic revolution in agriculture was led by the non-public sector, with seeds largely made out there as hybrids and/or protected by sturdy IPRs.
How is IP protected in agriculture?
In impact, there are actually two types of IPR safety in agriculture: plant-breeders’ rights and patents. Together, they prohibit farmers’ rights and the freedom to develop new varieties utilizing germplasm from IP-protected varieties. They have thus additional consolidated the seed sector and elevated the variety of plant varieties coated by IPRs.
The excessive costs of genetically modified seeds and IP claims triggered many issues, together with the State’s intervention on Bt cotton seeds in India. As public sector breeding declined and the non-public sector started to dominate the seed sector, the want for alternate options grew to become keenly felt.
This is when the success of open-source software program impressed an answer. In 1999, a Canadian plant-breeder named T.E. Michaels recommended an method to seeds primarily based on the ideas of open supply software program.
What are ‘open source seeds’?
In 2002, Boru Douthwaite and I (independently) proposed an open-source mannequin for seeds and plant varieties. I referred to as it the “BioLinux model”, and students and civil-society members alike mentioned and constructed on it.
In 2012, Jack Kloppenburg, whose 1988 ebook First The Seed alerted the world to tendencies in the seeds sector and the use of IP to regulate farmers’ rights, launched the ‘Open Source Seeds Initiative’ (OSSI) in Wisconsin. A number of years later, a German NGO named Agrecol launched one other initiative in Europe. Since then related programmes have come up round the world.
Agrecol’s mannequin to satisfy authorized necessities in Europe is primarily based on a contracts method during which the person agrees inter alia to not patent seeds purchased underneath the open-source licence. The OSSI merely asks for a pledge, that a person gained’t “restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives”.
Are there such initiatives in India?
In India, the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA), a part of the Apna Beej Network, developed a mannequin integrated into an settlement between CSA and the recipient of the seed/germplasm.
According to G. Rajshekar, who coordinates CSA’s Open Source Seeds Initiative, it is attempting to make use of this method via three farmer producer organisations (FPOs). This is much like Agrecol’s technique, utilizing an settlement to ‘shrinkwrap’ a licence with contractual obligations.
Worldwide, the variety of seed companies utilizing open supply fashions and the crop varieties and seeds made out there thereunder is small however rising. India is but to check and undertake it extensively.
Under the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFRA) 2001, farmers can register varieties as ‘farmer varieties’ in the event that they meet sure situations, and have the proper to reuse, replant, and change seeds. However, they will’t breed and commerce in varieties protected underneath the Act for industrial functions. Using the open supply method right here will allow farmers to achieve extra rights over germplasm and seeds and facilitate innovation. So there is a necessity to check this method with farmers and the three FPOs can take the lead.
Are there different methods the mannequin will help?
One potential utility of the open supply method is to make use of it in farmer-led seed conservation and distribution programs. There are many traditional-variety conservation and sharing initiatives in India ,together with these involving farmers.
Many of them give attention to conventional varieties which might be distinctive to particular areas or websites and/or have particular options. To extra extensively undertake these varieties, the authorities and different stakeholders can take into account an open supply mannequin.
The mannequin can be used to advertise farmer-led participatory plant-breeding workouts. Traditional varieties typically lack uniformity and aren’t of fantastic high quality. Open supply ideas will help overcome these two challenges by facilitating testing, improvisation, and adoption – all of which can in the end be helpful to India’s meals safety and local weather resilience.
Krishna Ravi Srinivas is with the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, New Delhi.
