The Protection and Promotion of Farmers’ Rights in East Africa
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Date
2015
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Publisher
ACODE
Abstract
The importance of plant genetic resources and the need to conserve and
sustainably utilize them has been the subject of many regional and international
discussions in the last two and a half decades. The thrust of these discussions has
centered not only on the modalities of ensuring that these resources are utilized
in a sustainable manner but also the need to reward those who have helped
nurture and made them available to successive generations. The adoption of the
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture represents
an international consensus that the protection and promotion of farmers’ rights
is one way through which countries can achieve the above objectives.
The recognition of farmers’ rights by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture and the need by member countries to fulfill
their obligations has given policy makers a lot of challenges. These challenges
mainly revolve on the available policy options for realization of these rights at
the national and regional level. In East Africa, where the concept of Farmers’
Rights is new, where majority of the people are illiterate farmers, and where
poverty is getting to alarming levels, the implementation of these rights presents
peculiar challenges. This paper identifies and addresses some of the major
challenges in implementation of farmers’ rights within East Africa’ s social,
political, economic and cultural context.
The paper is premised on the understanding that the first step in realizing these
rights lies in promoting awareness among the different stakeholders about the
concept of Farmers’ Rights. The concept of farmers’ rights is new to many
stakeholders in the region including the policy makers who are charged with
the responsibility of their implementation. The paper therefore goes at length
to explain the concept of Farmers’ Rights including tracing it’s origin and evolution.
The concept is summarized as based on conservation concerns and equity
considerations. It is premised on the fact that rewarding the world farmers for
their contribution to agro-biodiversity provides them the incentives to continue
nurturing, sustainably utilizing and making available these resources for future
generations.
It is emphasized that the concept entails the recognition and protection of
many rights, the major ones being: the protection of traditional knowledge
relevant to plant genetic resources; equitable sharing of benefits arising from
their use; participation in decision making processes touching on the conservation
and sustainable use of these resources and the right to save, use, exchange and
sell farm saved seed/propagating material of farmers’ varieties.