Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) play an important role in the struggle for food security and encouraging agricultural research and development. This book examines these roles as well as the international relationship between IPRs, agricultural biotechnology, access to biological resources, food security and globalisation, paying particular attention to proposals for the protection of Farmers' Rights, traditional knowledge, GM crops and the impact of competition laws. It proposes a number of recommendations for action in deploying IPRs in order to reach greater food security globally.

This book examines the contribution which intellectual property rights can make in the struggle for food security in developing countries. The book consists of 11 chapters. Chapter 1 locates intellectual property rights within the armoury of food security policies. Chapter 2 deals with definitional issues and examines the role of intellectual property rights in incentivizing agricultural research and development. Chapter 3 examines the international landscape of intellectual property and the approaches taken to the relationship between intellectual property rights, agricultural biotechnology, access to biological resources, food security and globalization which are taken by the WTO, FAO, CBD and WIPO among the various international and development agencies. Plant variety rights (PVRs) are a specially created form of intellectual property right originally minted to encourage agricultural innovation and Chapter 4 examines the effectiveness of PVRs in a food security context. Agricultural innovation is in part dependent upon access of researchers to the genetic resources of the biodiverse countries of the South. Chapter 5 considers the attempts to construct an international regime to secure this access. The important role of traditional farmers in preserving landraces and cultivars from which improvements can be derived has generated for a call for the recognition of farmers' rights, and this is examined in Chapter 6 together with agitation for the protection of the traditional knowledge which often informs access to the useful genetic resources. Chapter 7 examines the intellectual property implications of the use of genetically modified (GM) crops as a technological solution to food insecurity. The protection of GM crops is achieved through patent protection and Chapter 9 looks at the competition law implications of patent licensing, patent pools and patent thickets. An old intellectual property device that underpinned the commercial development of European agricultural marketing is the geographical indication, and Chapter 8 examines the contribution it might make to achieving food security. Returning to the theme of the role of intellectual property law in incentivizing innovation, Chapter 10 examines its role in promoting agricultural research. The concluding chapter proposes a number of recommendations for action in deploying intellectual property law in the struggle for food security.

This volume advances the claim that the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) adopted in 2001 is the only existing international agreement with the potential to promote food security, conservation of biodiversity and equity. However, for germplasm-rich countries, national interests come into conflict with the global interest. This work shows that the pursuit of national interests is counterproductive when it comes to maintaining genetic resources, food-security and rent-seeking and that optimally, the coverage of the FAO Treaty should be widened to apply to all crops.

This new book merges the concepts of traditional agriculture, crop sustainability, and intellectualproperty rights associated with plant protection and agricultural products. It discusses various strategies associated with crop tolerance to adverse environmental conditions and also highlights the role of agricultural intellectual property rights, along with the implications for plant patents, protection of farmers’ rights, and geographical indication in plant products, to provide a broader outlook toward strategies for sustainable agriculture and global food security associated with IPR. The chapters provide an overview of sustainable crop cultivation in traditional agriculture as well as with new biotechnological approaches. The volume explores several stress resilience strategies and issues for crops, considering how to mitigate the effect of increased carbon dioxide concentration, heavy metal pollution, over-salinized soils, and cold spells. It also discusses how to make desert farming more efficient; how to increase abiotic stress tolerance of crops with grafting, seed soaking/priming, soil amendment, and more. The chapters on agricultural intellectual property rights address IPR in conjunction with food security, the rights of farmers, legal applications and protection of plant patents, protection of traditional knowledge, international legal issues, and plant variety protection rights in agriculture and more.

This important volume provides a basic understanding of the different forms of intellectual property rights in agricultural science. It provides an abundance of information on the use of IP laws in agriculture and allied subjects and their proper implementation in real-life practice. The chapter authors discuss different kinds of IP laws and their current status in developed as well as developing countries throughout the world. The protection of biological resources is crucial for food security for future generations. Biological resources are the source of several important genes. Researchers are interested in the development of plant varieties that can increase crop production, withstand dramatic climatic changes, etc. Protecting intellectual property rights in plant varieties and the rights of farmers and others are discussed in this volume. It also looks at new trends and developments in the field involving new IP strategies and the application of IP laws in agriculture and biotechnology and in the management of plant genetic resources.