A Critical Examination of Breeders' Monopoly Rights to the Detriment of Farmers' Rights Under the Ethiopian Plant Breeders' Rights Law

• Author: Temesgen Abebe Degu
• Position: Wachemo University, School of Law, Hosaena, ETHIOPIA
• Pages: 19-29

Center for Open Access in Science  https://www.centerprode.com/ojls. html

Open Journal for Legal Studies, 2021, 4(1), 19-30.

ISSN (Online) 2620-0619  https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojls.0401.02019d

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© Authors. Terms and conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) apply.

Correspondence: Temesgen Abebe Degu, Wac hemo University, School of Law, Hosaena, ETHIOPIA. E-

mail: timatimdegu@yahoo.com.

A Critical Examination of Breeders’ Monopoly

Rights to the Detriment of Farmers’ Rights Under

the Ethiopian Plant Breeders’ Rights Law

Temesgen Abebe Degu

Wachemo University, School of Law, Hosaena, ETHIOPIA

Received: 20 January 2021  Accepted: 4 April 2021  Published Onlin e: 1 June 2021

Abstract

Ethiopia adopted plant breeders’ rights proclamation in 2006 to provide recognition and

economic reward for breeders for their effort and investment so as to encourage their

involvement in the sector. At the same time, the proclamation aims to ensure that the farming

and pastoral communities of Ethiopia, who have been conserving and continue to do so in the

future the agro-biodiversity resource used to develop new plant varieties, continue to their

centuries old customary practice of use and exchange of seed. T his article aims at investigating

the extent to which the proclamation accommodates its stated objective by giving adequate

recognition to farmers’ rights. The investigation adopts a qualitative method by analyzing both

primary materials and secondary sources. The article concludes that the Ethiopian plant

breeders’ rights proclamation fails to adequately incorporate farmers’ rights beyond its preamble.

Keywords: breeders’ rights, farmers’ rights, IPRs, monopoly rights, patent.

1. Introduction

Agricultural innovations have for long remained outside the domain of intellectual

property rights (IPRs) owing to ethical and socioeconomic reasons. With the advent of modern

agro-biotechnology, however, the sector began to be subjected to IPRs. Today, newly developed

plant varieties are protected in some form of IPRs. Particularly, the TRIPPS agreement provides

that plant varieties (PVP) shall be protected either through patent or an effective sui generis

system, or a combination of the two. In this direction, Ethiopia adopted plant breeders’ rights

(PBRs) law for the first time in 2006. This proclamation mainly accords breeders of new plant

varieties certain monopoly rights akin to patent. Even if the proclamation recognizes farmers’ role

in maintaining genetic diversity and conservation, it only paid one provision for farmers’

exemption to use and exchange farm saved seeds. This article aims at evaluating the

appropriateness of granting monopoly rights for private breeders with little attenti on to farmers’

rights on the basis of various ethical and socioeconomic reasons.

The article, in terms of organization, consists of seven sections. While the first section

is devoted for the introduction, the second section deals with the introduction of IPRs in the

agricultural sector. Section three discusses plant variety protection (PVP) under the TRIPS

agreement, along with the degree of flexibility available to members in designing the same. After

a brief introduction of the Ethiopian PBRs law in section four, the pros and cons of PVP will be