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Hindi Research Article
The Legal Protection of Public and Private Plant Varieties in India: A Comparative Analysis
| BL Manjunatha1*, DUM Rao2, MB Dastagiri3, JP Sharma1 and R Roy Burman1 | |
| 1Division of Agricultural Extension, IARI, New Delhi-110012, India | |
| 2IARI Regional Station, Pusa, Samastipur (District), Bihar, 848125, India | |
| 3National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research, Library Avenue, Pusa, New Delhi 110012, India | |
| Corresponding Author : | BL Manjunatha Ph.D. Scholar, Division of Agricultural Extension IARI, New Delhi-110012, India E-mail: manju4645@gmail.com |
| Received: July 20, 2013; Accepted: September 20, 2013; Published: September 25, 2013 | |
| Citation: Manjunatha BL, Rao DUM, Dastagiri MB, Sharma JP, Burman RR (2013) The Legal Protection of Public and Private Plant Varieties in India: A Comparative Analysis. J Bioremed Biodeg 4:207. doi:10.4172/2155-6199.1000207 | |
| Copyright: © 2013 Manjunatha BL, et al. This is an open-a ccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
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Abstract
The enforcement and implementation of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 has influenced the seed industry in a big way in India. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority has so far received 3984 applications for registration of plant varieties out of which 487 have been granted Certificates of Registration (CoR). It is interesting to note that farmers’ varieties formed 29 percent of all the applications received. Crop-wise analysis of issue of CoR revealed that cereals, (such as maize, bread wheat, rice, pearl millet and sorghum) and cotton along with few pulses formed more than 90 percent of the varieties granted CoR. Public sector contributed for 83 percent of the total CoR issued in all categories of varieties. But in case of new varieties the private sector dominated with a share of almost 90 percent. Two private seed companies namely, Monsanto India Limited and MAHYCO together contributed 16 new varieties out of total 34 new varieties granted CoR. Maize and cotton together contributed for 66 percent of new varieties granted CoR. The widening gap between the public and private sector seed companies in the development of innovations (new varieties, hybrids and proprietary technologies) and getting plant variety protection is alarming. The public sector seed industry has to be revitalised to address the present day challenges of competitiveness in R&D, market access, and efficient technology transfer systems. India is the first country in the world to grant registration for farmers’ varieties and this has implications for the developing countries to follow this unique model.
