Despite having one of the richest agricultural biodiversities in the country, Karnataka stands at the bottom of the pool in terms of registration of farmers’ varieties of crops (native crops being specific to a particular farming community or varieties developed by farmers), under the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers’ Rights Act-2001. This Act provides legal rights over such crops on the lines of patenting.
“As against 3,157 applications received from across the country for registrations under farmers’ varieties, Karnataka accounts for a meagre 141. Similarly, a total of 130 farmers’ varieties have been registered so far, while none from Karnataka has entered the registry as the applications from Karnataka have been filed only recently,” according to Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers’ Rights Authority Chairperson R.R. Hanchinal.
Expressing concern over the poor number of applications for registrations from the State, he said Karnataka had a huge potential. “Karnataka has such a rich biodiversity in agriculture that there are a large number of native varieties in rice alone,” he noted, while participating in a sensitisation-cum-interaction programme on ‘Protection of Plant varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act’, jointly organised by the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers’ Rights Authority and Forum of Former Vice-Chancellors of Karnataka State Universities.
Dr. Hanchinal, who earlier served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences-Dharwad, appealed to the Agricultural Sciences universities in the State and the departments of agriculture and horticulture to play a crucial role in identifying the farmers’ varieties and registering them. The registration for the farmers was completely free of cost, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, professor of Genetics, University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore, Niranjana Murthy, who is also the member-convener of the Germ Plasm and Plant Varieties Registration Committee of the University, explained that registration of farmers’ varieties was a must to protect their rights over the crops. Without such registrations, it was not possible to take up seed trading in foreign countries, he said.
Former Vice-Chancellors M. Mahadevappa, G.K. Veeresh and S.A. Patil also spoke.
