Reconciling Breeder’s Rights and Farmer’s Rights for Food Security in Sri Lankan Context: A Comparison with India

Abstract

Sri Lanka owns a noticeable history of agricultural sector that has been flourishing since ancient times, where food security had been ensured for decades. The advancement of technology unwrapped new capacities in science which enabled new plant varieties to play a key role in agriculture, which diminished the traditional knowledge of farmers. Sri Lanka as a developing state has ratified International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which has granted recognition for farmer’s rights while Sri Lanka has not been able to ratify International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) that has prioritized breeder’s rights. However, the significance of creating new plant varieties should be addressed in the domain of food security of the world and likewise in a context where sustainable development goal has set to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Yet Sri Lanka has failed to introduce any legislation where states such as India has been able to enact proper mechanisms to reconcile the rights of both breeders and farmers without even joining the UPOV convention. Thus, the objectives will concentrate on methods where these rights can be settled, examine the international legal regime, examine loophole in Sri Lankan system and to make the second goal of sustainable development goals a reality. The information regarding this will be derived from primary sources; conventions, legislations of Sri Lanka and India. Qualitative data will be gathered through books and journals while interviews will be also incorporated. Discussion comprise mainly an analysis and have emphasized on the conflicting interest of rights of breeders and farmers. Finally, this paper will encourage to generate recommendation for the existing loopholes while proposing a unique legislation for Sri Lanka in order to reconcile breeder’s rights and farmer’s rights.