South Asia Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment (SAWTEE) together with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), organised a three-day regional seminar on “Policies for the Protection of Farmers’ Rights in Mountain Regions: Evolving sui generis Options for the Hindu-Kush Himalayas (HKH)” in Kathmandu, Nepal from 24-26 March 2003. The objectives of the seminar were to:
Help policy makers and civil society actors understand the contemporary debate on intellectual property protection and rights of the poor, marginalised and vulnerable farmers of the region in general and mountain farmers in particular.
Explore various options available under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to prepare a balanced legislation that would protect the rights of commercial breeders without impairing the rights of farmers to save, exchange, re-use and sell seeds.
Explore and evolve specific policy options, which would contribute to safeguarding the rights of mountain farmers.
Provide trade negotiators with skills and knowledge necessary to negotiate during the on-going review of TRIPS Agreement.

More than 80 delegates from eleven countries attended the seminar. At the end of the seminar, the participants adopted a resolution on farmers’ rights, which is expected to help the policymakers in devising an effective mechanism for the protection of farmers’ rights.

Resolution adopted at the Seminar

In the context of agriculture related international agreements including TRIPS, the United Nations (UN) Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IT-PGRFA), and emerging awakening of the farmers on their rights, this seminar addressed by experts on farmers’ rights, representatives of governments, civil society, media and academia from South Asia, East Asia, and Europe calls upon the governments and the international agencies to evolve a mechanism that respects the centuries old traditional practices of farmers of sharing plant genetic resources.

This seminar urges the governments of the HKH and South Asia regions to enact the legislation that ensure protection of local knowledge of farming communities and plant varieties including the ones developed by farmers, following an effective sui generis system wherein:

Law making process should be transparent and participatory, involving all stakeholders such as governments, civil society, and farmers’ rights groups.
Issues of food security, food sovereignty and livelihood security should be addressed properly.
Research, development policies and actions must take care of the livelihood interests of the least developed areas and the marginalised mountain farming communities.
Improved access to inputs including sustainable technology, which must not endanger health safety and environment, should be ensured.

The seminar calls upon the governments to stop increasing corporatisation of basic resources such as land, water, bio-mass and forests so as to guarantee an enabling environment for small and marginalised farmers with special emphasis on gender issues in rural livelihood context. The seminar rejects patents on life forms and emphasises that bio-piracy should be stopped effectively. Legislation for this purpose must be enacted at local, provincial and federal levels, paying due attention to the vulnerability and threat of marginalisation faced by mountain farmers.

The farmers’ rights that need to be addressed while drafting the sui generis legislation with their multi-dimensional aspects should include:
The right of farmers to protect their traditional knowledge associated with plant genetic resources from being misappropriated.
The rights of farmers over plant varieties and local knowledge over and above the corporate breeders’ rights.
The traditional rights of farmers to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, sell and improve farm saved seed of all plant varieties.
The right to compensation from the right holders of plant varieties for under performance and loss from misleading claims.
The right of farmers to receive equitable benefit sharing, both monetary and non-monetary, for the use of plant genetic resources created and conserved by them for the development of new commercial varieties, with due regards being given to the economic valuation of the plant and seed varieties developed by them during the process of evolution since centuries.
The right of farmers to be informed of the market opportunities so that they could better assess the marketing options for their produce.
The right of farmers to get protected against bio-piracy and theft of their traditional knowledge.
The right of farmers to be aware of national and international agreements affecting their livelihoods directly or indirectly.

Globalisation and Mountain Farmers: Tapping Opportunities and Mitigating Threats March 2003:

South Asia Watch on Trade, Economic and Environment (SAWTEE) has published a volume of the compilation of the research studies that were undertaken by its five partners: Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) in Bangladesh; Consumers Unity and Trust Society (CUTS) in India; Pro Public in Nepal; Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in Pakistan; and Law and Society Trust (LST) in Sri Lanka. The volume titled "Globalisation and mountain farmers: Tapping opportunities and mitigating threats" has six chapters that deal with the country case studies covering various issues of farmers' rights in the mountain regions of South Asia. The volume, edited by Shafqat Munir and Kamalesh Adhikari, has been published under the farmers' rights programme that SAWTEE is currently implementing in mountain regions of Hindu-Kush Himalaya and Sri Lanka. Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada, Member, National Planning Commission (NPC) Nepal released the volume during the regional seminar on farmers' rights held in Kathmandu from 24-26 March 2003.