By Byron Mutingwende

The International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) has said it is important to grant breeders of new plant varieties intellectual property rights for them to enjoy full benefits arising out of their innovations.

This came to light during the regional workshop on the draft African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) protocol for the protection of new varieties of plants organized in cooperation with UPOV with the assistance of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that was held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel in Harare.

“The UPOV Convention provides the basis for members to encourage plant breeding by granting breeders of new plant varieties an intellectual property right: the breeder’s right.  The UPOV Report on the Impact of Plant Variety Protection demonstrated that in order to enjoy the full benefits which plant variety protection is able to generate, both implementation of the UPOV Convention and membership of UPOV are important,” said Peter Button, UPOV deputy secretary during his opening remarks at the workshop.

Button said that improved plant varieties, combined with improved farming practices guarantee tremendous progress in agricultural productivity and future food security.

ARIPO and its Partners have been organizing such workshops each year in the member states of the organisation since its Twelfth Session held in Gaborone, Botswana in 2009 which mandated the ARIPO Office to establish a Regional Plant Variety Protection System to enhance Agricultural productivity and development in the member States of the Organization.

ARIPO director-general, Fernando dos Santos said many countries including developing and least developed countries are considering establishing effective systems for the protection of new varieties of plants with the view to promoting sustainable agricultural development.

“The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the over 1 billion people are hungry due to population growth, increasing food prices, poor food distribution mechanisms and poverty. Significantly nearly 70% of the world’s hungry are involved in agriculture themselves either as small holder farmers or landless labourers.

This clearly indicates that agricultural development and food systems of most countries require urgent changes and responses from governments, research community, private sector, international financial and cooperating agencies and society at large,” dos Santos said.

He added that ARIPO in collaboration with partners were developing enabling policies and legislations that will support the efforts of the member states to utilize intellectual property tools such as plant variety protection to stimulate innovation for the social, cultural, economic and technological developments.