Legal protection to farmer innovations was stressed at a seminar on ‘Farmer’s innovations and intellectual property right’ that concluded here on Saturday.
Speaking after inaugurating the programme, District Session Judge V. Vijayakumar said innovations by farmers should be recognised and support given to them to safeguard their work.
“There are enough laws and mechanisms constituted by the government, but the general public is unaware of such laws,” said Mr. Vijayakumar.
There were many cases where the innovations by farmers were mismanaged or not properly utilized, he added.
A milestone
P. Rajendran, Associate Director of Research, Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), said Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act was one of the milestones in the context.
Dr. Rajendran said innovations by farmers had to get proper scientific validation and support from the scientific community or else their findings would be underestimated.
Balakrishnan Kammana, a farmer scientist in the district, explained the process throught which he developed two pepper varieties, Suvarna and Aswathy. Mr. Balakrishnan requested the support of the scientific community for the assessment of chemical components and other ingredients of the pepper varieties.
Somalatha Moli, a researcher at the Cochin University of Science and Technology, explained efforts made by the varsity to popularise intellectual property rights.
Innovations by traditional healers in the district were also discussed at the seminar.
The seminar was organised as part of the Wayanad Seed Fest 2018, a three-day community seed festival being organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation here in association with the Kerala State Biodiversity Board.
