Developing a registration system for farmers' varieties

Summary

Context: Many countries only allow seed of registered varieties to be legally produced and sold in the market. Due to strict requirements regarding the characteristics (e.g., distinctness, uniformity, and stability) and performance (e.g., outperforming high-yielding varieties under standardized growing conditions) for varieties to be released, this implies that many farmers' varieties are confined to the spheres of the informal sector as ‘potential planting materials’: their production, use, exchange, and trade remain unregulated, largely unsupported, and their importance underestimated.
Objective: The present article provides a guided approach on how to develop and implement a registration system suitable for farmers' varieties in full recognition of their inherent properties that often distinguish them from those that are developed in the formal seed sector.
Method: By following the seed regulatory value chain through which new crop varieties normally reach the market, this article analyses approaches to solve key questions that need to be addressed when adapting that regulatory chain to facilitate the registration and release of farmers' varieties. These questions range from what constitutes a farmers' variety to which rights a registrant may receive over the registered variety vis-à-vis other stakeholders. Answers are provided based on country cases, a literature review, and the learnings and inputs received during several stakeholder workshops and meetings organized in the context of seed system development programmes.
Results and conclusions: Based on a discussion of the major principles and elements of current variety registration systems developed for the formal seed sector, our analysis leads to a plausible approach through which a farmers' variety registration system could be implemented. In that context, this study provides guidance on who qualifies to register a farmers' variety, how to agree on more flexible criteria for distinctness, uniformity, and stability, and elaborates key principles that can inform solutions for the division and distribution of rights, and access and benefit-sharing.
Significance: Several national governments have indicated their interest in implementing a farmers' variety registration system. However, the practicalities on the ground and the principles that could guide implementation have not been elaborated or well-defined in the literature. This article aims to fill that gap. Through the registration and diffusion of farmers' varieties, governments will contribute to an increase of on-farm agro-biodiversity that can enhance farmers' resilience and livelihoods, while contributing to the implementation of Farmers' Rights as defined in the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.