Members of the National Agricultural Seeds Advocacy Group, NASAG, have called for a Plant Breeders Protection Law that will protect the rights of breeders in the country.
Speaking during a zoom conference on the seed sector of the agricultural industry recently, Celestine Okeke, a Lead partner, Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Economic Development Initiative, said in the absence of a law protecting the rights of breeders in Nigeria, “plant breeders both in the public and private sectors have remained non-committal towards investing in plant breeding as there is no guarantee that their rights will be recognized and respected.
ant breeders that have invested huge resources in developing plant varieties have often had same varieties duplicated for commercial purposes without their consent, leaving the original breeders with little or no value for their research breakthroughs.”
He said the seed sector is the most important sub-sector in the entire value chain of agriculture the world over, “it is the critical and most important factor that determines the level of development the agricultural sector in any country can attain.
“The foundation of development in the sector rests almost squarely on the quality of research and development undertaken by plant breeders and other scientists in the sector, in their absence, the sector would most likely be unable to support robust and sustainable agricultural development in any country.”
While lamenting that Research and Development in the seed sector have remained majorly within the walls of poorly funded agricultural research institutes and the private sector, he said the need for a law regulating the sector now is inevitable.
He queried “If writers have laws protecting their written text, artists have laws protecting their intellectual properties and authors have laws protecting their publications, how much more for plant breeders who spend upwards of 12 months researching on plant varieties?.
“The continued non-existence of protection for plant breeders poses a greater danger to the sector as breeders have continued to leave the country to work in climes where their rights are protected and those still within the country are not willing to invest time and resources in plant breeding as there is no law protecting their intellectual work.
“If protection (copyright) exist for writers, why should it sound like a devilish idea for it to exist for plant breeders?”
Celestine Okeke added that “The poverty levels in the country, coupled with growing food insecurity and rising food prices calls for immediate action to remedy the dearth of research and development in the seed sector.
“The seed sector is the bedrock of the agricultural sector, without seeds, there cannot be an agricultural sector and without continuous research and development in the seed sector, there will continue to be an agricultural sector incapable of supporting our food security aspirations.”
While speaking on the importance of the seed bill before the National Assembly, he said it will enable farmers to access wide varieties of improved plant varieties that will result from the breeding programmes that will be protected under the law.
“Granting plant breeders Intellectual Property Right over their Planting materials will spur them to invest more in plant breeding and this will greatly develop the seed sector.
“It will provide a wider pool of genetic resources for our breeders to draw from in their course of variety development.
Celestine Okeke added that the fear of the bill opening a back door for genetically modified varieties .
is purely speculation and “we will like to leave as it is, besides, assumptions remain the lowest form of knowledge.
By Nimat Otori
Vanguard News Nigeria
