An informal international consultation on Farmers’ Rights was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 18 to 20 September 2007, jointly organized and co-hosted by the Norwegian and Zambian ministries of agriculture and food and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute (FNI), Norway.
In the period between the entry into force of the Plant Treaty in 2004 and the first session of its Governing Body in June 2006, there were no formal processes related to Farmers’ Rights. However, The Farmers’ Rights Project sought to prepare the ground for negotiations.
The Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is in the process of defining contents of Farmers’ Rights.
The Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) is particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights with respect to its provisions on requirements for national legislation on plant breeders’ rights. Dependent on how such legislation is formulated, it may to various degrees limit farmers practices of saving, using, exchanging and selling farm-saved seed of protected varieties.
The Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights due to its provisions requiring national legislation on patents and plant variety protection. Despite different opinions on how these provisions shall be interpreted, experience shows that there is much flexibility with regard to Farmers’ Rights.
The Convention on Biological Diversity CBD is closely interconnected with the Plant Treaty. Its provisions on traditional knowledge and access and benefit sharing are particularly relevant for the realization of Farmers’ Rights. However, there are different approaches to these issues, dependent on whether the aim is primarily to develop stewardship or ownership. Thus, it is useful to reflect the relevant provisions of the CBD through the Plant Treaty with its provisions and options for realization of Farmers’ Rights.
The Plant treaty is the only legally binding international agreement exclusively pertaining to the genetic resources in seed and propagating material for food and agriculture. It addresses the realization of Farmers’ Rights in Article 9, and has a number of supportive provisions in other parts of the Treaty, particularly in Article 6 on sustainable use of crop genetic resources. The Plant Treaty provides the international platform for negotiations on the realization of Farmers’ Rights related to crop genetic resources.
The extent to which Farmers' Rights can be implemented in a country is not only dependent on the needs and priorities within the country. Often it is also subject to the obligations and commitments that the country has under various international agreements to which it is bound. Sometimes, ratifying specific international agreements – often related to intellectual property rights – are preconditions for entering into bilateral and regional trade agreements, thus putting extra pressures on countries in these directions. Thus, mainstreaming Farmers' Rights is not only important at the national, but also at the international level.
This is the fourth category of options to encourage, guide and promote the realization of Farmers’ Rights in the Options Document. It comprises options for catalogues, registries and other forms of documentation of PGRFA and protection of traditional knowledge.
During the controversies over farmers’ rights over the past decades, two rationales have been prevalent: the 'stewardship' and 'ownership' approaches.
The Keystone Dialoges from 1988 until 1991 were instrumental in framing the issue of Farmers' Rights and providing a basis for the recognition of these rights by the FAO Conference.
Farmers' Rights was among the most contested issues during the negotiations towards the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.