Local Knowledge, Intellectual Property and Agricultural Innovation

247 Pages·2020·3.803 MB·English

by  Michael Blakeney, Kadambot H. M. Siddique

Michael Blakeney
Kadambot H. M. Siddique  Editors
Local Knowledge,
Intellectual
Property and
Agricultural
Innovation
Local Knowledge, Intellectual Property
and Agricultural Innovation
Michael Blakeney • Kadambot H. M. Siddique
Editors
Local Knowledge,
Intellectual Property and
Agricultural Innovation
Editors
Michael Blakeney Kadambot H. M. Siddique
School of Law Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair
The University of Western Australia and Director of The UWA Institute
Crawley, WA, Australia of Agriculture
University of Western Australia
Crawley, WA, Australia
ISBN 978-981-15-4610-5 ISBN 978-981-15-4611-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4611-2
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Preface
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that
about 795 million people were chronically undernourished in 2012–14 (FAO, 2015).
In 1996, the World Food Summit defined food security as ‘when all people at all
times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active
life’ (Maxwell and Buchanan Smith, 1992). With 70% of the world’s extremely
poor and food insecure people living in rural areas, the role of agriculture – the
predominant economic activity in those areas – is crucial for the eradication of pov-
erty and food insecurity.
Smallholder farmers increasingly cultivate marginal lands that are particularly
vulnerable to climate change (see Wood et al, 2014). The FAO has observed that
with global warming, ‘many, of today’s poorest developing countries are likely to be
negatively affected in the next 50–100 years, with a reduction in the extent and
potential productivity of cropland’ (FAO, 2003). A 1996 FAO study estimated that
the largest reduction in cereal production will occur in developing countries, aver-
aging about 10% (FAO, 1996). Putting this in perspective, a projected 2–3% reduc-
tion in African cereal production for 2020 was estimated to put 10 million people at
risk. Particularly vulnerable to climate change are those low- to medium-income
groups in flood-prone areas who may lose stored food or assets, farmers who may
have their land damaged or submerged by a rise in sea level and fishers who may
lose their catch to shifted water currents or through flooded spawning areas
(IPCC, 2019).
Compounding these problems is the estimate that at the current rate of global
population increase, the global demand for cereals will increase by 40% from 1995
to 2020 (Serageldin and Pursley, 2000) and that net cereal imports by developing
countries will double to meet the gap between production and demand (Pinstrup-
Anderson et al., 1999). Currently, the developing world is a net importer of 88 mil-
lion tons of cereals a year at a cost of US$14.5 billion.
The consistent policy approach to guarantee food security is to promote techno-
logical improvements in agriculture. The massive increases in food productivity in
the 30 years between 1960 and 1990, described as the Green Revolution, was
achieved by developing high-yielding crop varieties, supported by massive increases
v
vi Preface
in fertiliser and insecticide use. By 1990 it had become apparent that the reliance on
chemically nurtured, high yielding crop varieties – which had precipitated the Green
Revolution – was no longer economically or environmentally acceptable (Conway
and Pretty, 1991). Thus, it was argued that to meet the food security needs of the
next 30 years and to create wealth in poor communities, there was a need to increase
agricultural productivity on the presently available land, while conserving the natu-
ral resource base (Conway, 1997).
Governments introduced hybrid varieties, often developed by multinational life-
sciences companies, but these were often vulnerable to pest/disease infestation (see
Thorburn, 2015). In response, local knowledge and agricultural practices of tradi-
tional farming communities were called upon to underpin sustainable agriculture
(Pretty, 1995). As this first chapter will reveal, an important implication for food
security is the contribution of traditional farmers to conserving and identifying use-
ful biological material that is embodied in biotechnological innovations.
Implementing agricultural advances depends on appropriate legal instruments,
enabling and recognising change, and local farmers’ knowledge and understanding
and adapting scientific knowledge (Winarto et al, 2013).
This book examines the contribution of local knowledge and intellectual prop-
erty to agricultural innovation and food security. This chapter defines the terms at
the heart of this study and reviews the literature concerning the contribution of local
knowledge to agricultural innovation, particularly in a time of climate change.
Chapter 2 investigates the role of intellectual property rights, particularly pat-
ents, plant variety rights and geographical indications in encouraging agricultural
innovation.
Chapter 3 looks at the role of local and traditional knowledge in identifying use-
ful biological materials for the development of agriculture. It discusses the concept
of biopiracy and surveys the various international instruments seeking to regulate
access to those materials and the sharing of benefits from their utilisation.
Chapter 4 looks at DNA patenting and agriculture, the judicial consideration of
DNA patents and the growth in patenting stress-tolerant genes. It discusses the pat-
enting of plant varieties and plant breeding methods.
Chapter 5 looks at the origins of the International Convention for the Protection
of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV); the requirement that protected varieties be new,
distinct, uniform and stable; eligible registrants for plant variety rights protection;
the farmer’s privilege to save seed; and the compulsory licensing of protected
varieties.
The 1991 version of UPOV extended the protection of the new varieties concept
to ‘essentially derived varieties’ (EDVs). Genetic engineering has made it possible
to transfer exogenous DNA to plants, together with mutation breeding (new varia-
tions via either irradiation or chemical mutagens) and backcrossing (transferring
useful traits of a donor parent variety to a recipient variety). Chapter 6 considers the
use of DNA markers to identify traits that could be characterised as EDVs and sur-
veys the resolution of varietal disputes.
Chapter 7 examines the international and national legal frameworks that have
fostered the current situation with regards to seeds and local agricultural knowledge
Preface vii
in Indonesia. It includes case studies to show how such frameworks are impacting
on the practices of farmers and how farmers are dealing with this impact and are
developing self-help mechanisms. It argues that standardised regulatory approaches
ignore the considerable contribution and innovative nature of local farming prac-
tices, which still contribute about 70% of the food produced in the world. The chap-
ter discusses the changes that can be expected from the new Draft Law on the
Continuous Cultivation of Agriculture and concludes by pointing to the important
influence of two key aspects of the political reformation process in Indonesian soci-
ety after the end of the military backed Suharto government: decentralisation poli-
cies which have been beneficial for local councils and NGOs working on rural
issues and the creation of a Constitutional Court, which has issued progressive deci-
sions in cases concerning indigenous peoples and farmers.
Chapter 8 describes the cultivation of local rice varieties in the Tabanan Regency
of Java in Indonesia, where the cultivation of traditional varieties is an important
activity for rural farming households. In addition to the farmer’s daily needs, the
production of local rice varieties is becoming important for income-generation for
families. Also, several ceremonies related to Balinese culture demand the use of
local rice varieties. The Department of Agriculture’s division on Agricultural
Technology Research (BPTP) in 2016 announced a program called ‘self-sufficient
seed village’ in Bali to allow farmers to share seed within their village. Farmer
organisations blend traditional agricultural management with modern methods.
Governments or companies wishing to collaborate with farmers for seed provision
or other activities are obliged to approach the governance structures established
under national legislation.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001, the Seeds Act,
1966, and the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act,
1999, were enacted to foster agricultural innovation in India. Chapter 9 explores the
extent to which this legislation has achieved that objective.
Chapter 10 reports on a study of the effectiveness of Indian farmers’ rights and
geographical indications legislation in promoting the conservation and utilisation of
farmers’ varieties of rice in Kerala, South West India, an important rice-producing
region. A total of 300 rice farmers were surveyed and the government records of the
registration of farmers’ varieties and geographical indications were examined. The
analysis revealed that the farmers surveyed were either ignorant of the legislation or
unsure of its effects. Farmers have not been much involved in the registration of
farmers’ varieties and have not made any claims in relation to the registered variet-
ies. They also tend to confuse the function of geographical indications protection
with the protection of farmers’ varieties. This is the first study of the effectiveness
of the two Indian statutes in promoting agricultural innovation and the implementa-
tion of national legislation seeking to implement the farmers’ rights provisions of
the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
The retreat by central governments from research, development and extension in
agriculture has contributed to the emergence of farmer-based organisations that
have a critical new role in the promotion of more sustainable agricultural systems.
Chapter 11 provides background detail on the developments that led to the
viii Preface
emergence and evolution of grower groups as crucial players in the agricultural
paradigm and describes the critical role played by these groups in sustainable
growth and development. The chapter looks at self-help groups in India and
Australia.
Much of the research for this book was conducted in the context of an Australia
Research Council Discovery Grant DP170100747.
Crawley, WA, Australia Michael Blakeney
Crawley, WA, Australia Kadambot H. M. Siddique
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Michael Blakeney and Kadambot H. M. Siddique
2 Intellectual Property and Agricultural Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Michael Blakeney
3 Access to Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture . . . . . . . 45
Michael Blakeney
4 Local Knowledge and Climate Change Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Michael Blakeney
5 Plant Variety Rights and Food Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Michael Blakeney
6 Trait Breeding and Plant Varietal Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Seyed Hossein Jamali
7 Farmers as Researchers: Government Regulation
of Farmers’ Local Knowledge in Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Christoph Antons, Yunita T. Winarto, Adlinanur F. Prihandiani,
and Sinta Uli
8 Development of Local Rice on the Tabanan Regency of Bali . . . . . . . 153
Ida Ayu Astarini, Made Pharmawati, Made Ria Defiani, and
Kadambot H. M. Siddique
9 Legislative Support for Agricultural Innovation in India . . . . . . . . . . 173
Michael Blakeney
10 Traditional Rice Cultivation in Kerala . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Michael Blakeney, Jayasree Krishnankutty, Rajesh K. Raju,
and Kadambot H. M. Siddique
11 Community-Based Self-Help Groups in Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Beena Anil, Matthew Tonts, and Kadambot H. M. Siddique
ix
About the Contributors
Christoph Antons Professor of Law, Faculty of Business and Law, Newcastle

Law School, University of Newcastle, Australia; Affiliated Research Fellow, Max
Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany; Senior Fellow,
Centre for Development Research, University of Bonn, Germany; Visiting Professor,
Faculty of Law, University of Technology MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia. Christoph
is currently the Project Leader of the Australian Research Council funded projects
‘Building an intellectual property system: The Indonesian experience’ and ‘Food
security and the governance of local knowledge in India and Indonesia’. His recent
book publications are The Routledge Handbook of Asian Law (2017) and Intellectual
Property, Cultural Property and Intangible Cultural Heritage (Routledge 2018,
with William Logan).
Ida  Ayu  Astarini Associate Professor, Biology Department, Faculty of

Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia; currently
Vice Director for student and academic affairs of Postgraduate Program, Udayana
University. She was Head of Master’s Degree in Biology Program, Udayana
University, from 2014 to 2017. Dr. Astarini completed her BSc at the Faculty of
Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, West Java, Indonesia, then obtained her
Master’s and PhD degrees from The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences,
The University of Western Australia, under AusAID scholarship. She became a
DIKTI Research Fellow in 2011 at The University of Western Australia and a
Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at Department of Horticulture, Texas A & M
University, College Station, USA, in 2014. She has 20 years’ experience in teaching
and research, majoring in plant tissue culture, plant breeding and molecular genet-
ics. Dr. Astarini was also actively involved in teaching in the overseas students pro-
gram at Udayana University on tropical horticulture and ethnobotany. She has
published papers in a number of international journals, and has published five books
and a book chapter in Indonesia. Dr. Astarini is also a national interviewer for
Indonesia-LPDP scholarship programme.
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