Plant Treaty Negotiations

At the first session of the Plant Treaty’s Governing Body in Madrid in 2006, Norway stressed the importance of Farmers’ Rights, noting that the responsibility for their implementation lay with national governments. Norway was accordingly funding a project, the Farmers’ Rights Project, that focused on how countries could best implement Farmers’ Rights, the need for cooperation in this regard within the framework of the Treaty, and how the Governing Body could support these efforts. The results of the first phase of the project had been presented in a side-event at that first session of the Governing Body. Mindful of the workload that the Secretariat was carrying, and that the first priority of the Treaty was to make the Multilateral System functional, Norway nonetheless requested that follow-up to Article 9, Farmers’ Rights, be considered by the Bureau for possible inclusion in the agenda of the Governing Body’s second session. Many regions supported this proposal, which was addressed in the report from this First Session of the Governing Body.

It was not self-evident that Farmers’ Rights should become an agenda item for the Governing Body, as some delegates argued that their realization were up to the contracting parties, according to Article 9, and thus not a topic for the Governing Body. Counterarguments were that the Governing Body, according to Article 21, is responsible for compliance with all provisions of the Treaty and not only obligations. On this background and with the pressure of regions of the Global South, it was possible to achieve consensus to put Farmers’ Rights on the agenda of the Governing Body at its Second Session.

In preparing for the follow-up of this intervention, the governments of Norway and Zambia together with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute organized the first Informal International Consultations on Farmers’ Rights in Lusaka, Zambia in 2007.

In response to Norway’s intervention at the First Session of the Governing Body of the Plant Treaty, Farmers’ Rights was put on the agenda of its Second Session, as Agenda Item 14.

Based on the report  (PDF, 634KB) from the Lusaka Informal International Consultation on Farmers’ Rights, co-organized by Zambia Agricultural Research Institute, the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Zambia and Norway prepared and submitted an input paper on Farmers’ Rights (PDF, 41KB) to the Governing Body for its consideration at its Second Session (see also information document (PDF, 40KB) from the Secretary). Together with a side event presenting the outcomes of the Lusaka consultations, this formed the basis for the negotiations on Farmers’ Rights at this second Session of the Plant Treaty’s Governing Body. There was substantial resistance among several industrialised countries against the resolution text proposed by the developing countries (G77). Only through intense negotiations in a contact group was it possible to arrive at a consensus text. (PDF, 14KB) The result was the adoption of the first resolution on Farmers’ Rights under the Plant Treaty, Resolution 2/2007 (PDF, 8KB). In this resolution the Governing Body:

• Encouraged contracting parties and other relevant organizations to submit views and experiences on the implementation of Farmers' Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty, involving, as appropriate, farmers' organizations and other stakeholders.

• Requested the Secretariat of the Governing Body to collect these views and experiences as a basis for an agenda item for consideration by the Governing Body at its Third Session to promote the realization of Farmers' Rights at the national level.

• Affirmed its commitment to continue to involve farmers' organizations in the work of the Governing Body - as appropriate and according to the Rules of Procedures.

Following from this resolution the Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN) and the Community Technology Development Trust (CTDT), Zimbabwe organized an on-line consultation on Farmers’ Rights, with focus on Article 9.3 of the Plant Treaty. Several countries and stakeholders also took the opportunity to submit their views and experiences and the Fridtjof Nansen Institute submitted a compilation of results from the Farmers’ Rights Project, covering views and experiences from a wide range of countries and stakeholders. You can read more about this here.

At the Third Session of the Plant Treaty’s Governing Body a new resolution on Farmers’ Rights (PDF, 10KB) was adopted that marked a substantial step forward for the international understanding of these rights and their realization. This is not only due to the contents of the resolution (see below), but also because of the broad consensus that was reached among the Contracting Parties at an early stage in the discussions of the proposed text. The only substantial resistance against the proposed resolution text came from Canada, on one of the proposed operative provisions (PDF, 16KB), whereas all other contracting parties were largely united.

Reports from the substantial intersessional work on Farmers’ Rights was presented to the Governing Body as basis for its considerations, inter alia a  report from an online consultation on Farmers’ Rights (PDF, 231KB), a summary of findings from the Farmers’ Rights Project (PDF, 221KB), including an international survey and country case studies, and the compilation from the Treaty Secretariat of submissions from countries and stakeholders before  (PDF, 140KB)and after (PDF, 102KB) the submission deadline.

The original text for the 2009-resolution was proposed by Brazil on behalf of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The adopted resolution (PDF, 10KB) has 10 preambular paragraphs and 5 operational paragraphs. The operational paragraphs set out that the Governing Body:

• "invites Contracting Parties to consider reviewing and, if necessary, adjusting its national measures affecting the realization of Farmers' Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International Treaty, to protect and promote Farmers' Rights". This means that Contracting Parties should consider reviewing their seed regulations and other measures affecting Farmers' Rights, particularly if these are affecting Farmers' Rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed important to enabling farmers to continue to conserve and sustainably use plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
• "encourages Contracting Parties and other relevant organizations to continue to submit views and experiences on the implementation of Farmers' Rights as set out in Article 9 of the International, involving, as appropriate, farmers' organizations and other stakeholders". This means that Contracting Parties and other relevant organizations that have not already submitted their views and experiences should do so in due time before the next session of the Governing Body.
• "requests the Secretariat to convene regional workshops on Farmers' Rights, subject to the agreed priorities of the Programme of Work and Budget and to the availability of financial resources, aiming at discussing national experiences on the implementation of Farmers' Rights as set out Article 9 of the Plant Treaty, involving, as appropriate, farmers' organizations and other stakeholders". To enable the implementation of this task, Contracting Parties and other stakeholders are advised to ensure that the Secretariat has the sufficient financial resources to convene such regional consultations. In light of its limited capacity, the Secretariat may also consider linking up with relevant institutions to carry out this task.
• "requests the Secretariat to collect the views and experiences submitted by Contracting Parties and other relevant organizations, and the reports of the regional workshops, as a basis for an agenda item for consideration by the Governing Body at its Fourth Session, and to disseminate relevant information through the website of the International Treaty, where appropriate". The input that is submitted to the Secretariat from Contracting Parties, relevant organizations and stakeholders as well as from regional workshops, would be decisive for the quality of the preparations of the Secretariat, and thus for the next steps of the Governing Body in terms of Farmers' Rights.
• "appreciates the involvement of farmers' organizations in its further work, as appropriate, according to the Rules of Procedure established by the Governing Body". The farmers' organizations provided important input to the Governing Body through their participation at the first two sessions. As farmers are closest to explaining their situation and needs with regard to the conservation and sustainable use of crop genetic resources as well as to Farmers' Rights, their continued participation was considered vital to the further work of the Governing Body. Farmers' organizations can participate at Governing Body Sessions as members of country delegations or as observers and have different possibilities of influencing decision-making processes in the Governing Body through such participation.

The Fourth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was held in Bali, Indonesia, 14-18 March 2011. It adopted a resolution on Farmers' Rights, Resolution 6/2011 (PDF, 86KB) which marks progress with regard to the attention the Governing Body attaches to this important component of the Treaty.

An important background for this achievement was the Global Consultations on Farmers’ Rights that had been held in the inter-sessional period up to the Fourth Session of the Governing Body, comprising an e-mail-based survey and a global consultation conference with regional components, held in Addis Ababa in 2010. Ethiopia presented an input paper (PDF, 149KB) (translated into Spanish (PDF, 154KB) and French (PDF, 261KB)) to the Governing Body about the consultation process that had been organized by the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway, in collaboration with the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, Ethiopia (now Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute). The results (PDF, 1MB) were also presented at a side event (PDF, 718KB) during the session.

Following the presentation of Ethiopia of the outcomes of the Global Consultations on Farmers’ Rights, the Governing Body started the negotiations on the agenda item. Based on the first round of negotiations, an informal working group met to discuss elements of a resolution text based on a draft from the Philippines. Contracting parties, as well as relevant organizations, were invited to participate in the discussion on an informal basis. The group made progress, but due to controversies among the Parties, the text remained bracketed. Thus, the plenary decided to establish a formal Contact Group to seek finalization of the text. Due to continued controversies among the Parties, the resolution text was presented to the plenary with several brackets, which were finally resolved on the last day of the session.

In Resolution 6/2011 (PDF, 86KB) on Farmers’ Rights, the Governing Body invites contracting parties to convene national consultations and requests the Secretariat to convene regional workshops on the implementation of Farmers' Rights. In Resolution7/2011 (PDF, 104KB) on sustainable use of plant genetic resources, an Ad Hoc Technical Committee was established on the implementation of Article 6, sustainable use of crop genetic resources, which will also work on important questions related to the implementation of Farmers' Rights (the two resolutions should therefore be read together). Furthermore, contracting parties were encouraged to continue submitting views, experiences and best practices on the implementation of Farmers' Rights to the Secretariat, and they were invited to consider reviewing, and if necessary, adjusting their national measures affecting the realization of Farmers' Rights.

The Fifth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) was held in Muscat, Oman, 24-28 September 2013. It adopted a resolution on Farmers’ Rights, Resolution 8/2013 (PDF), which represented a new approach to the Secretariat’s role: Whereas the Secretariat had previously compiled submissions from Contracting Parties and other stakeholders and disseminated these compilations at the Treaty website, it was now requested to review the knowledge, views, experiences and best practices that had been submitted since the entering into force of the International Treaty. It was requested to derive examples, in a systematic way, as options for the national implementation of Article 9 on Farmers’ Rights to be presented at the next session of the Governing Body in 2015 in Rome.

This was the result of a lengthy discussion at GB5 on whether and how the Governing Body could promote national implementation of Article 9 on Farmers’ Rights. Developing countries demanded voluntary guidelines and were supported by inter alia Norway. The idea was to set up a working group for developing such guidelines, including possibly a definition of Farmers’ Rights, but there was no consensus for that.

At the previous session of the Governing Body in 2011, the Ad Hoc Technical Working Group on Sustainable Use (ACSU) was – through Resolution 7/2011 (PDF) – given the mandate to take into account Resolution 6/2011 (PDF) on Farmers’ Rights. This was a response to the demand from many countries in 2011 to establish a working group for developing voluntary guidelines. Instead of setting up a separate group with that purpose, an established group was mandated to look into the realization of Farmers’ rights, by taking the resolution on Farmers’ Rights from GB4 into account. The formulation can be found in the resolution text, not the mandate itself. This positioning of the formulation in the resolution text instead of the mandate, may be the reason why Farmers’ Rights was hardly taken into account by ACSU. Resolution 7/2013 (PDF) refers solely to Article 6 and a reference to Farmers’ Rights can only be found in the annex to the resolution on a programme of work on sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. One of the adopted goals is to provide support to Contracting Parties and stakeholders to implement the provisions of Articles 5, 6 and 9 of the Treaty that are relevant for the sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. However, in the Programme of Work derived from these objectives, there is no mention of Article 9 or Farmers’ Rights. Even if the implementation of Article 6 can be seen as a strategy to realize Farmers’ Rights, the actual implementation of Article 9 was thus left aside and the mandate of ACSU in this regard was not fulfilled. In the terms of reference for ACSU for the subsequent biennial period (2013–2015) there was no mention of Farmers’ Rights either in the mandate itself or the text of Resolution 7/2013 (PDF). Thus, this was the end of the idea of having ACSU dealing with Farmers’ Rights.

Even though no consensus could be found for a working group on Farmers’ Rights, the language of Resolution 7/2013 is strengthened as compared to earlier resolutions on Farmers’ Rights. Contracting Parties were for the first time invited to consider developing national action plans for the implementation of Article 9. They were also invited to promote access to genetic resources under the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing to local and indigenous communities and farmers.

A new area of work was introduced at this session of the Governing Body: the Secretariat was requested to invite the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to jointly identify possible areas of interrelations among their respective international instruments, as UPOV was considered to affect the implementation of Farmers’ Rights and vice versa.

In line with the previous resolution from GB4, the Governing Body also invited Contracting Parties that had not already done so, to consider reviewing and as appropriate adjusting its national measures affecting the realization of Farmers’ Rights to protect and promote these rights. Also other provisions from previous resolutions were maintained, such as organizing regional consultations, facilitating support for the work – among others from development cooperation agencies – and last but not least, to involve farmers’ organizations in the work.

Several side events on Farmers’ Rights and related matters were conducted at GB5, inter alia presenting work that had been carried out since the last session of the Governing Body, as reflected here. Following GB5, processes were initiated and new initiatives taken in preparation for GB6 in 2015, as reflected here.

Stakeholders involved in Farmers Rights had great expectations to the Sixth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), that was held in Rome, 5-9 October 2015. At this session the Secretariat was to present a review of submissions from parties and stakeholders on knowledge, views, experiences and best practices related to Farmers’ Rights since the Treaty came into force, and to derive examples in a systemic way, as options for national implementation of Article 9 of the Plant Treaty. This had been requested by the Governing Body at its Fifth Session two years earlier in Oman.

A report (PDF) was presented, based on all submissions so far on Farmers’ Rights, i.e. from 17 countries being parties to the Treaty and from 17 stakeholders. A further group of stakeholders submitted input through an addendum (PDF) to the report. Nevertheless, the report did not live up to expectations, as it did not cover much of the contents of the submissions, and thus this rich source of experiences and reflections regarding Farmers’ Rights was not sufficiently represented. Even if the report had a table, it did not derive examples in a systemic way, as options for national implementation of Article 9 of the Plant Treaty. The report can be regarded as a lost opportunity to make major steps forward regarding the implementation of Farmers’ Rights.

Nevertheless, delegations seeking to promote Farmers’ Rights under the Treaty at the Sixth Session were seeking solutions that could help making progress. The resolution on Farmers’ Rights that was adopted at this Sixth Session, Resolution 5/2015 (PDF), represented new efforts in this regard. It was now decided that the Secretary, subject to the availability of financial resources, should prepare a study on lessons learnt from the implementation of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the Treaty, including policies and legislation. Contracting Parties and all relevant stakeholders, especially farmers’ organizations, were invited and encouraged to submit their views and experiences, so that the Secretary could derive examples as possible options for national implementation of Article 9 on Farmers’ Rights. The study resulting from this work should be presented at the Seventh Session of the Governing Body.

It was also decided that success stories from the national implementation of Farmers’ Rights should be compiled and presented at the next session of the Governing Body. 

Furthermore, the Secretary was requested, subject to the availability of financial resources, to launch and implement a Joint Capacity Building Programme with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and other relevant organizations on Farmer’s Rights, to finalize a learning module on Farmers’ Rights and conduct active outreach on Farmers’ Rights.

Countries were encouraged to develop national action plans for the implementation of Article 9 and to consider reviewing and adjusting national measures affecting the realization of Farmers’ Rights, to protect and promote these rights.

Importantly, the resolution also provided that Contracting Parties and relevant organizations should take initiatives to convene regional workshops and other consultations including with farmers’ organizations, for the exchange of knowledge, views and experiences to promote the realization of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the Treaty, and present results at the next session of the Governing Body. The Secretary was requested to facilitate such initiatives, subject to the availability of financial resources.

The Secretary was requested to continue engaging, in a mutually supportive manner with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plan (UPOV) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to jointly, and including through a participatory and inclusive process, finalize the identification of possible areas of interrelations between their respective instruments and the Treaty and report on the outcomes to the Seventh Session of the Governing Body;

Finally, Contracting Parties and development cooperation organizations were invited to consider providing financial and technical support for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights as set out in Article 9 of the Treaty in developing countries, and to enable farmers and representatives of farmers’ organizations to attend meetings under the International Treaty. Contracting Parties in a position to support such processes, were called upon to facilitate such support for the implementation of the activities foreseen in the resolution.

These provisions, and particularly the one on organizing consultations on Farmers’ Rights, set the stage for the ensuing Global Consultation on Farmers’ Rights that took place in Bali, Indonesia, in 2016.

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