Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority

Overview

The Delhi High Court recently upheld an order by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA).

Revoking the intellectual property protection granted to PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd with respect to a potato variety developed by it.
The HC has merely faulted PepsiCo for wrongly applying for registration of FL 2027 under the category of new variety.

PepsiCo India Holdings Private Limited’s appeal against the Authority’s decision, which was made on December 3, 2017, in response to an application made by farmers’ rights campaigner Kavitha Kurungati, was denied by Justice Navin Chawla.
The court also upheld the Authority’s letter dated February 11, 2022, rejecting PepsiCo’s application for renewal of its registration.
The Authority had noted that PepsiCo’s inaccurate statement about the date of the first sale of the potato variety and its category—new rather than existing—had led to the award of the certificate of registration.
A certificate of registration was not given to a person who did not qualify for protection under the law because it was not in the public interest to do so.

Breeders will have exclusive rights to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export the protected variety.
Researcher can use any of the registered variety under the Act for conducting experiment or research.
Similarly to a breeder of a variety, a farmer who has created or produced a novel variety is entitled to registration and protection.
- Compensation to the farmers for non-performance of variety under Section 39 (2) of the Act, 2001.
- Farmers variety can also be registered as an extant variety.
A variety is eligible for registration under the Act if it essentially fulfills the criteria of Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS).
So far, the Central Government has notified 157 crop species for the purpose of registration

It is a Statutory body created by an act of Parliament.
Image by Bernadette Wurzinger from Pixabay
It works under the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
India enacted The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001
- To ensure the establishment of a successful framework for the defense of plant varieties, farmers’ and plant breeders’ rights.
- Also to encourage the development of new varieties of plants.
- Will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers.
To implement the provisions of the Act, the established the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority on 11 November, 2005.

Functions

Developing Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability test guidelines for new plant species.
Registration of fresh plant varieties, existing varieties, and essentially derived varieties (EDV).
Farmer recognition and rewards, particularly for tribal and rural communities engaged in conservation and improvement
Conserving the genetic resources of commercially important plants and their wild cousins.
Mandatory cataloguing of all plant varieties.
Maintenance of National Gene Bank.
Farmers’ variety documentation, indexing, and cataloguing.

Members

Chairperson is the Chief Executive of the Authority.
Authority has 15 members as notified by the Government of India (GOI).
- Eight of them are ex-officio members representing various Departments/ Ministries, three from SAUs and the State Governments
- One representative each for farmers, tribal organization, seed industry and women organization associated with agricultural activities are nominated by the Central Government.
The Registrar General is the ex-officio Member Secretary of the Authority.

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