India’s Plant Variety Act and Issues Around It

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 – Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Introduction

India’s Plant Variety Act is being reviewed after two decades to match new technologies, trade changes, and farmers’ needs. Planned amendments must balance high-yielding varieties with the protection of traditional and community-developed seeds and farmers’ rights. India’s Plant Variety Act and Issues Around It.

India’s Plant Variety Act

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001 is a sui generis system for plant variety protection. It was enacted to meet India’s WTO–TRIPS obligation to create an “effective system” for protecting plant varieties, while avoiding patents on plants.

It recognises both breeders and farmers for conserving, improving, and making available plant genetic resources, and aims to promote new varieties without harming food and livelihood security.

Implementation Authority

Implementation is done by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare. The Authority maintains the National Register of Plant Varieties and grants plant variety certificates (PVCs).

Rights under the Act:

Breeders get exclusive rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export protected varieties and to act against infringement.

Researchers can use registered varieties for experiments or breeding, with permission for repeated use.

Farmers who develop new varieties can register them and get the same protection as breeders. All farmers can save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell farm produce, including seed of protected varieties, as long as it is not sold as branded seed.

R.S. Paroda committee on India’s Plant Variety Act

A twelve-member committee chaired by R.S. Paroda has been set up by the PPV&FRA to examine the Act and Rules and suggest amendments.

The committee will examine deficiencies in implementation, present-day challenges, and farmers’ requirements, then submit its report to the Authority, which will in turn present its views to the Union Agriculture Ministry.

Argument for the amendment I India’s Plant Variety Act

1. Updating outdated definitions: Current definitions of “variety” and “seed” do not fully cover combinations of genotypes or vegetatively propagated material like tubers, bulbs or tissue-culture plants, so the law does not match today’s seed technologies.
2. Clarifying breeder and institutional roles: The Act needs clearer recognition of public institutions and private firms as breeders to avoid disputes over who can register and commercialise new varieties.
3. Improving DUS testing framework: Present Distinctness–Uniformity–Stability (DUS) rules are narrow and allow confusion and disputes, so clearer trait-based descriptors and procedures are required.
4. Curbing abusive market practices: Amendments seek to define “abusive acts” such as selling seeds with misleading or identical denominations and make such conduct punishable.
5. Protecting community and traditional seeds: Stronger safeguards are required so community-developed and traditional varieties cannot be privatised or registered without farmer consent and benefit-sharing.
6. Strengthening farmer compensation and sovereignty: Clearer rules on compensation for non-performing registered seeds and alignment with global plant-treaty negotiations are needed to protect farmer rights and India’s seed sovereignty.

Concern related to the amendments of India’s Plant Variety Act

1. Dilution of farmer-centric balance: There is concern that amendments may tilt the Act towards breeder and industry interests, weakening its original pro-farmer design.
2. Vague and punitive “abusive acts” clause: Critics say criminalising “abusive acts” without precise, objective criteria could give excessive discretion to authorities and be misused against small seed dealers.
3. Risk of privatising community and traditional seeds: Farmer groups fear DUS-tested community varieties could be registered by companies, enabling monopolisation of shared seed commons and biocultural heritage.
4. Marginalisation of small farmers in a techno-legal regime: Complex IPR procedures, expanded breeder rights and weak legal support can worsen power asymmetry between resource-poor farmers and large seed firms.
5. Weak, unclear compensation and liability framework: Rules on holding breeders liable for seed failure and compensating farmers remain under-specified even as stronger breeder rights are considered.
6. Possible drift towards UPOV-1991-style standards: Some experts fear that, in the name of “harmonising” with international standards, future amendments could slowly make India’s law resemble the UPOV-1991 model, which is widely viewed as giving stronger rights to commercial breeders and relatively weaker protection to farmers’ traditional practices of saving, reusing and exchanging seeds.

Way forward

1. Strengthen community seed control: Amendments must keep community-developed seeds out of private monopoly. DUS-tested farmers’ varieties should be registered in community names. This will help prevent future misuse and keep control with local seed keepers.
2. Clarify key legal terms:,The law and Rules should clearly define variety, seed, breeder institution and abusive act. Clear wording will make procedures easier to understand and apply for all stakeholders.
3. Detail farmer compensation rules: Rules must spell out when and how farmers will be compensated if protected propagating material fails to perform. Simple criteria and process will help farmers claim timely relief.
4. Link reforms with global talks: Reforms should watch plant-treaty negotiations on the multilateral system. They should also support in situ conservation and fair benefit sharing with local farming communities.

Conclusion

Revising India’s Plant Variety Act is a chance to align the law with new technologies while strengthening farmers’ rights by supporting innovation, ensuring accountability and protecting community seed systems so that traditional and improved varieties together secure farmers’ livelihoods and community control over seeds.

Question for practice:

Discuss the key concerns related to the proposed amendments to India’s Plant Variety Act and suggest a suitable way forward to protect farmers’ rights.

Source: The Hindu