TWN Info Service on Sustainable Agriculture
5 February 2025
Third World Network

Dear Friends and Colleagues

UPOV Detrimental to Farmers’ Rights to Seed

The majority of countries in the Global South have clauses in their laws that allow farmers, at least to some extent, to exercise their rights, in particular, to save and, in some cases, also to exchange and sell seeds. This protection of farmers’ rights is a central component of the farmer-managed seed system, which in many countries is a central pillar of the seed supply and, thus, also of food security.

A policy brief by the Association for Plant Breeding for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES), UPOV’S War Against the Rights of Farmers, shows how the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) has been waging a systematic campaign to have these laws amended, threatening farmers’ rights to seeds. The authors examine how UPOV does this – mainly through pressure, misleading information, and biased advice in the development of national legislation. UPOV is seen to represent the interests of seed companies and of the countries where these companies are based, with the latter using free trade agreements and development cooperation to pressure the Global South to join UPOV.

To develop a modern plant variety protection law that is responsive to national circumstances and needs, the first step is to analyse the national seed sector and its context. Both the farmer-managed seed system and the formal sector must be included in the considerations. This is because a plant variety protection right should promote both systems, while also protecting human rights and implementing international agreements and declarations. Farmers must be involved at all stages of the process, in accordance with their right to participate.

This procedure is in stark contrast to the one-size-fits-all approach propagated by UPOV. According to the authors, the demand to introduce a plant variety protection right in accordance with UPOV 91 (negotiated over 30 years ago by a few industrialised countries) is backward-looking, colonial and inappropriate for this era. Rather, what is needed are efforts to strengthen farmers’ rights to overcome the global food and biodiversity crisis.

With best wishes,
Third World Network