Food Crisis, Development and

Intellectual Property

D.ssa Francesca Re Manning

CAS-IP

A presentation to the Cambridge International Development Society

5 December 2009

Food Crisis

World Bank “food prices rose 83% over last 3

years”

FAO “45% increase in food price index in last 9

months

Food Crisis

But the crisis was not sudden. Prices have been

rising for some time now, so perhaps earlier

warning signs were missed or ignored?

Food prices or overpopulation?

IFDP “food produced steadily at over 20% a

year while rate of population growth dropped at

1.14% a year

Some causes

“Unnecessary” or excessively produced

products – tobacco, cocoa, tea, sugar...

Droughts in wheat producing areas

Biofuels diversion of crops – 10%

Deeper and long-term causes

No voice in food security policy of developing

countries

WTO removal of trade barriers

GMOs and proprietary of technology

Agriculture and Development

75% poor people depend on agriculture to

survive

In agriculture-based countries, it generates on

average 29% of the GDP and employs 65% of

the labour force

Investigation in Agriculture is essential

The Consultative Group on

International Agricultural Research

CGIAR

Created in 1971

Alliance of countries, international and regional

organizations, and private foundations

• supporting 15 international agricultural research

Centres

• that work with national agricultural research systems,

civil society organizations, and the private sector.

The CGIAR

CGIAR 5 focuses

Sustainable production

Enhancement of National Agricultural Research

Systems (NARS)

Germplasm Improvement

Germplasm Collection

Policy

Some achievements of the CGIAR

Comite’s de Investigacion Agricola Local

New Rices for Africa (NERICA)

Quality Protein Maize

Potatoes Virus detection kit

Improved, drought resistant maize

Improved aquaculture techniques and new

varieties of tilapia fish

Borlaug’s reaction to critics to Green

Revolution

"some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western

nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are

elitists. They've never experienced the physical

sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from

comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If

they lived just one month amid the misery of the

developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be

crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals

and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home

were trying to deny them these things".

Primal aim of the CGIAR

Knowledge AS International Public Goods

• Available, Accessible, Applicable

• Non-rivalrous

• Non- excludable

• Transboundaries

Knowledge as International Public

Good

CGIAR Centres must managed the knowledge

produced properly to ensure

• access

• sharing

• impact

Central Advisory Service

Assist the Centres to manage their knowledge

to ensure access and use of their intellectual

assets as public goods for the benefit of the

poor

Intellectual Assets as Property

Intellectual Property

“all those things that emanate from the exercise of the

human mind”

The law....

The law does not protect the right to own

intellectual property unless the author has taken

steps to claim ownership over the results of

his/her creative product

Intellectual Property Rights

IPRs are the rights granted to inventors, artists,

plant breeders, in recognition of their work

There is usually a need to meet certain

standards of creativity before it is granted

The rights granted are limited – by time, and by

country

Often exploited by licensing

When others wish to use IPRs they must get

consent, and perhaps pay a royalty

Main IPRs in Agriculture

Patents

Plant Variety Rights

Copyright

Geographical Indications

Patents

Exclusive right to make, use and sell

Monopoly granted by the State to the inventor to disclose the invention and recoup investment

A grant of a patent requires an invention to pass tests of novelty, inventive step (unobviousness), and industrial applicability

Rights are national, i.e. by country

Just for a laugh!....

The Dummy Chicken Farmer...

Patents and Public Goods

Enola bean case

• patent over new variety of yellow bean

• restrictions on imports (sale)

• limitation on farmers’ right to re-use, exchange or sell

patented seed + breeders’ right of to use that seed

for further research and breeding purposes

Turmeric & Basmati cases

• Used for years in India – millions of money to defend

International Solution

Countries’ recognition of genetic material

subject to patent protection and no return

Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”)

• Conservation

• Sustainable use

• Fair & Equitable sharing of profits

Free exchange of genetic material

CBD requires bilateral agreements

• Time and money consuming

International Treaty on Plant Genetic for Food

and Agriculture (“IT”)

• Multilateral system for exchange of list of crops

• Farmers’ rights: traditional knowledge & decision-

making

• Restrictions on IPRs over original material

• Compulsory benefit sharing if commercialised

Copyright

Right over expression of idea involving some

creative element – literary, musical, theatrical...

Automatic right once fixated – but US system

• so not on ideas

Exclusive right to control copying or issuing

copies, adapt, translate, modify

Copyright and Public Goods

Open Access

• Make results of research as widely and accessible

as possible

• Free from technological and economic restraints

Wheat scientist in Kazakhstan

NGO Extension in Ethiopia

• Negotiations with Publishers

Copyright and Public Goods

Creative Commons

• some rights reserved

• clear understanding of permitted uses

Open Access Journals

Geographical Indications

Name or sign used on a product corresponding

to the country or place of origin

• Protected Denomination of Origin (“PDO”) and

Protected Geographical Indication (“PGI”)

– Natural and Human factor

– Quality, reputation, or other characteristic

Protection against incorrect and misleading,

damaging or exploiting reputation

• Darjeeling (and Darjeeling Nouveau)

• Budweiser (Budejovice or Budweis)

Geographical Indications and

Development

Collective group of producers

Protection and development

• Economy

• Traditional knowledge

• Rural community

• Agro-Biodiversity

Ethiopian Coffee: Harar, Sidamo, and Yirgacheffe

Thank you!

f.remanning@cgiar.org