Pasar al contenido principal

page search

Biblioteca Farmers' rights and food sovereignty: critical insights from India

Farmers' rights and food sovereignty: critical insights from India

Farmers' rights and food sovereignty: critical insights from India

Resource information

Date of publication
Diciembre 2014
Resource Language
ISBN / Resource ID
AGRIS:US201600001820
Pages
1085-1108

Farmers' access to and rights over seeds are the very pillars of agriculture, and thus represent an essential component of food sovereignty. Three decades after the term farmers' rights was first coined, there now exists a broad consensus that this new category of rights is historically grounded and imperative in the current context of the expansion of intellectual property rights (IPRs) over plant varieties. However, the issue of their realization has proven so thorny that even researchers and activists who are sympathetic to farmers' rights now express growing skepticism regarding their usefulness. In this article, I explore this debate through a case study of India's unique Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act. Based on an analysis of advances and setbacks in implementing the PPV&FR Act and a discussion of other relevant pieces of legislation, I argue that the politics of biodiversity and IPRs in India in recent years has been characteristic of the cunning state, and that this has seriously compromised the meaningful implementation of farmers' rights.

Share on RLBI navigator
NO

Authors and Publishers

Author(s), editor(s), contributor(s)

Peschard, Karine

Publisher(s)
Data Provider
Geographical focus