As trade pacts kick in, farm fears run high

While India is keen on sealing trade pacts with the European Union, Australia, Japan, there are apprehensions that developed economies will exert pressure on India to accede to some provisions that can hurt interests of the farming community.

The main concern relates to pressure on India to join the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants-1991 (UPOV-91), which would make Indian farmers dependent on multinational companies engaged in crop research and crush their privileges of sharing, exchanging or selling seeds to other farmers.

The objective of UPOV-91 is to protect new plant varieties through intellectual property (IP).

P Vivekanandan, coordinator, LIFE Network, an organisation that works with rural households, said stricter IP standards demanded by the developed world will further the privatisation of seeds and intensify monopolies over seed, pesticides, fertilisers etc. “The industry-conducive IP environment will only
encourage more proprietary agriculture technologies - such as genetically modified crops, etc.”

Farmers will lose control over seeds, which means they would lose control over agriculture and come under dominance of crop breeders, added New Delhi-based food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma.

Moreover, it would imply that, if farmers intend to save IP-protected seeds for future use, they would require permission and would have to make royalty payment to the crop corporates or attract penalty.

A senior official from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said all trade negotiations would hold Indian interests as focal points and no compromises would be made.

However IP experts say the government is only trying to assuage apprehensions by saying that Indian interests will be protected. “It has not given clarity on what all would be protected. India being an agrarian country, tightening IP in agriculture could have serious ramifications,” said an IP expert who did not wish to be named.

S Ganesan, chairman of the international treaties expert committee, said free trade agreements with India are initiated by “others with India”, rather than India with others. “India does not lead from the front and trading partners like EU are known for hegemony.”

Bhaskar Goswami, from the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, said Australia and EU would also press for easier imports of their products like maize, wheat, dairy produce, etc. through elimination of duties on several agri products. “This can destabilise our farming sector.”

Furthermore, UPOV-91 is beyond what is mandated by the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (Trips) agreement of the World Trade Organisation. Goswami said that while laws under Trips are draconian, those being institutionalised through trade pacts are nothing short of undermining whatever little protection farmers have in developing countries.