The History of Farmers' Rights - Fridtjof Nansens Institutt

36 Regine Andersen
tation at the national as well as international level. It covers all provisions
pertaining to farmers’ rights in the Treaty. A thorough presentation of
Article 9 on farmers’ rights is provided on pages 67–78. The history of
the negotiations on farmers’ rights is sketched, and interrelations with
other international agreements are highlighted, with special emphasis on
the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). On this
basis, the authors proceed to explain the content of the various provisions
of Article 9 and discuss possible ways in which Contracting Parties may
implement them.
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Salazaar, Rene; Bert Visser & Niels Louwaars (forthcoming 2006):
‘Protecting Farmers’ New Varieties: New Approaches to Rights on
Collective Innovations in Plant Genetic Resources’, World
Development, accepted for publication.
This forthcoming article documents how modern varieties developed in
the formal sector have gradually replaced landraces as a source of diversity
for many small-scale traditional farmers. However, this development
has not done away with farmer-breeding, which is vital in traditional agriculture.
This knowledge is of great importance when designing plant
breeders and farmers’ rights, in order to ensure food security and genetic
diversity. The major challenges are to warrant the recognition of the collective
innovation and breeding efforts of farmers, to allow access to
relevant genetic resources, and to keep these materials freely available for
use and further breeding – while at the same time ensuring effective
benefit sharing, the authors conclude.
4.3 Major works and articles on farmers’ rights – regional and
national levels
In this section, we have collected major works and articles on farmers’
rights in several regions and countries. We have sought to cover major
contributions as well as particularly interesting inputs to the debate in
these regions/countries.
India
The Indian Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act of 2001
is a landmark in the realization of farmers’ rights, as the first act of legislation
in the world to provide extensive rights to farmers. It is therefore
particularly interesting to follow the discussion on this act and to follow
its implementation. Various challenges arose along the way, and the following
contributions cover a wide range of viewpoints. We start with a
manual designed to assist practitioners in implementing the new act, and
then offer short introductions to the many contributions to the discussion
of this legislation, in chronological order.
Ravi, S. Bala (2004): Manual on Farmers’ Rights (Chennai: M.S.
Swaminathan Research Foundation).