Integrating farmers' rights to equitable benefit sharing into the malaysian plant variety law: Learning from others
The Farmers’ Rights concept is part of an international treaty of which Malaysia is one of the signatory parties. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO Treaty 2004), articulated four core rights under the Farmers’ Rights concept – namely the right to tr...
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Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
Language: | English English |
Published: |
2018
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Online Access: | http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1194/1/FH03-FUHA-19-25707.pdf http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1194/2/FH03-FUHA-19-25708.pdf http://eprints.unisza.edu.my/1194/ |
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Summary: | The Farmers’ Rights concept is part of an international treaty of which Malaysia is
one of the signatory parties. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for
Food and Agriculture (FAO Treaty 2004), articulated four core rights under the
Farmers’ Rights concept – namely the right to traditional farming knowledge, the
right to seed, the right to equitable benefit sharing and the right to participate in
decision making process. Article 9.2 (b) of FAO Treaty 2004 stipulates that farmers
should be given equal opportunity to equitably participate in sharing benefits from the
use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The right to equitable benefit
sharing legally justifies among others, the rights of small holder farmers who have
been breeding seeds for generations to receive benefits; either monetary or nonmonetary from any commercialization of the seeds that have been developed by them.
Non-monetary benefits include access to seeds for their farm. This paper investigates
to what extent the existing legal provisions of plant variety law in Malaysia has
integrated this right to equitable benefit sharing to small farmers as compared to
similar legislations in India and under African Union (AU Model Law for the
Protection of the Rights of Local Communities, Farmers and Breeders, and for the
Regulation of Access to Biological Resources). These two legal framework aimed to
protect their small farming communities are cited as legislations with the best
practices on implementing Farmers’ Rights core rights. The aim is for Malaysia to
learn from these countries in order to ensure legal protection for small farmers’ right
to equitable benefit sharing of their plant genetic resources. |
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