IPR and Food Security:

Introduction:
The issue of nourishment security which has picked up unmistakable quality in the
1970's has been a theme of verbal confrontation from that point forward. The
subject behind a licensed innovation security is to ensure speculations into
innovative work and empower advancement and as of late licenses have been
tackled indigenous plants which have been utilized for eras by the neighborhood
individuals, without their insight or assent potential. The Developing countries have
turned into a potential exploratory platform of the created nations. Accordingly,
market of the creating nations is being focused as wellbeing is tolerant and the
nations which have a patent security on plant assortment pay a substantial cost for
these innovations.
This paper addresses the uncertain issues relating to patent and sustenance
security, the current enactment's weaknesses and recommnedations.
What is Food Security?
Food security is an issue over which every nation should be concerned as it has
serious repercussions on economic, social and political stability. It is all the more
important for poorer countries1. The World Food Programme Report conceptualized
food security, equating it with an 'assurance of supplies and a balanced supplydemand situation of staple foods in the international market' 2. The report also
emphasized that increasing food production in the developing countries would be
the basis on which to build their food security. 3
Food security pertains to an ideal which are pledged by states at a national or
regional or at an international level to reduce the hunger which is one of the
problems that has poised serious concerns in the international global scenario. In
pursuance of this goal, nations resolved in 1996 to reach the goal of food security 4.
This was further reiterated at the Millennium Summit held at New York, 2000 where
nations embraced a revelation containing objectives and focuses in essential ranges
of human improvement.
1 Singh Joginder, Food security may be a myth,
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20030825/agro.htm#2 (1 June 2007).
2 Shah Anup, Food patentsStealing indigenous knowledge? http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood/FoodPatents .asp
(26 September 2007

3 World Food Programme, 1979: Food aid policies and programmes: Role of food aid in strengthening food security in
developing countries, United Nations Food Agricultural Organization, Rome, Italy, 22-31 October 1979.

The idea of nourishment security in its introductory stage, concentrated basically on

the accessibility and soundness of sustenance. The acknowledged definition has a
wide ambit and incorporates 'access to satisfactory nourishment to all individuals at
all times for a dynamic and solid life'.5 Thus, the concept of food security to this
point has experienced change to include condition of wholesome power which has
the accompanying segments: (i) accessibility, (ii) availability (iii) assimilation of
sustenance and (iv) sustainability 6.
It has been seen that 'sustenance security is a common 7 great that is not oversaw
at a global level yet the vast majority of the present meanings of nourishment
security weight on the administration of supply. The Committee on World Food
Security of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization characterizes
sustenance security as8:
'Sustenance security implies that nourishment is accessible at all times, that all
persons have method for access to it, that it is nutritiously sufficient as far as
amount, quality and assortment and that it is adequate for a given society. Just
when every one of these conditions are set up can a populace be considered as
'sustenance secure'. We intend to accomplish last confidence at the national and
family unit levels. Keeping in mind the end goal to succeed, our drives must be
established on the standards of financial suitability, value, wide support and the
economical utilization of regular assets.'
Further development of the Food Security:

4 World Food Summit, 1996 (Rome), Vyas V S, From Elimination of Hunger to Food and Nutrition Security: Performance,
Prospects and Policy Options in Selected Asian Countries, Food Security in Asian Countries in the Context of the Millennium
Goals edited by Vijay S Vikas [Published jointly by Academic Foundation, New Delhi, and The Asian Development Research
Forum (ADRF) and The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), Bangkok, Thailand in cooperation with International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), Canada], p. 13-28

5 World Food Summit, 1996 (Rome), Vyas V S, From Elimination of Hunger to Food and Nutrition Security: Performance,
Prospects and Policy Options in Selected Asian Countries, Food Security in Asian Countries in the Context of the Millennium
Goals.

6Food Security Policy Long Term Perspectives, Brussels, 1-3 April 1996, p.-16
7Solagral Seminar on Food Security Policy Long Term Perspectives, Brussels, 1-3 April 1996, p.-16

8 Committee on World Food Security, Towards Universal Food Security, Draft Policy Statement and Plan of Action, 21st
Session, item III, Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization, 29 January-2 February 1996 at Para 4.

As per the World Food Report, 1996 physical and financial access to satisfactory
nourishment for every one of the individuals and where families are not at the
danger of losing such access. There are three measurements understood to this
definition- - accessibility, steadiness and access. Satisfactory nourishment supply
implies that, on a normal, adequate sustenance supplies ought to be accessible to
address utilization issues. Soundness alludes to minimizing the likelihood that in
troublesome years and seasons, sustenance utilization may fall underneath
utilization prerequisites. Access attracts thoughtfulness regarding the way that even
with plentiful supplies numerous individuals still go hungry on the grounds that they
are excessively poor, making it impossible to create and buy the sustenance they
require. What's more, if nourishment needs are met through misusing nonrenewable assets or corrupting the earth , there is no insurance of sustenance
security in the more drawn out term.9
IPR A genuine Risk to Farmers?
IPRs are suited to the benefit systems of the worldwide seed aggregates that need
to rule farming which have been utilized for eras by the nearby individuals, without
their insight or consent. The interface between licenses in the part of
accomplishing nourishment security represents a genuine worry to all countries.
From the creating countries perspective, such a security represents a genuine risk
to the indigenous agriculturists who might be stacked with the weight of paying
sovereignties to the suppliers of enhanced assortment of seeds who might be the
patent proprietors of the seeds.10 As outlines priority can be refered to in patent
cases on Basmati and Turmeric in USA and tested by India. Comparable discussions
had emerged over Jasmine rice asserted in USA and tested by Thailand 11, which has
stayed uncertain. While, the worldwide standards permit licenses on yield
assortments, as a result, this has grave ramifications both for sustenance security
and the openness of medicines 12. In endeavor to accomplish nourishment security,
it would be basic that with a patent administration essentially it would lighten the
expenses of horticulture, which would be difficult for farmers to afford.

9 FAO, Food and International Trade, WFS 96/TECH/8, Provisional, April 1996, p. 5. para:3.1

10 Wadhera B L, Law Relating to Intellectual Property [Universal Law Publishing Co Pvt Ltd,C-FF-1A, Dilkhush
Industrial Estate, (Opposite Hans Cinema), G T Karnal Road,
Delhi 110 033], 2007, p. x-xi

11 Shah Anup, Food patentsStealing indigenous knowledge? http://www.globalissues.org/EnvIssues/GEFood/FoodPatents .asp

(26 September 2007).

The procedure of globalization of horticulture has subsequently undermined the

sustenance security objectives that the states imagine at achieving. In addition,
nourishment security is not confined to get to and measure up to appropriation of
sustenance additionally the nature of the sustenance. This is an essential angle
which should be remembered while tending to issues that include the issues of
nourishment security.
Linkage in Patent and Food Security

With the headway in the field of science and innovation, there is presently capacity
to hereditarily change a seed with particular attributes to present inside of the
plants and horticultural harvests. This has additionally showed into a stage where
an eliminator assortment of seeds along these lines delivered could be useful for
further advancement of innovation and satisfactory licensed innovation insurance,
yet it likewise demonstrates unfavorable in disturbing the age-old horticultural
customs that have been trailed by agriculturists in the creating countries. While a
few nations have confirmed protecting of life structures and plants 13, developing
countries are confronting hardened weight to consolidate a sui generis framework
according to Article 27.3(b) of TRIPS Agreement or embrace and follow the TRIPS
Agreement.14

At the beginning, it is relevant to say that nourishment security does not singularly
suggest access to sufficient nourishment but rather access to socially satisfactory
sustenance. In spite of the fact that, various studies show wealth of nourishment
supply however it doesn't as a matter of course infer satisfactory sustenance
security all around as different societies are unbending and wary about option
sustenance sources which are outsider to them.
To illiustrate, Central American nations have a maize based staple dietary example
while in African nations millet and cassava based dietary utilization is discernible. In
India and South Asian nations, the staple dietary utilization is rice and wheat.
Consequently it would be very far-fetched that the dietary example of these nations
12 Sagar Vidya, Food Security in India, Food Security in Asian Countries in the Context of the Millennium Goals, in Food
Security in Asian Countries in the Context of the Millennium Goal edited by Vijay S Vikas [Published jointly by Academic
Foundation, New Delhi.

13 Agricultural biotechnology and Intellectual Property Rights: Seeds of Change, edited by J P Kesan (CABI International
Publication, UK, Cromwell Press, Trowbridge), 2007

14 Shiva Vandana, The Hijacking of Global Food Supply, South End Press, p. 3.

would change inside of a brief timeframe. Further, the case by biotechnologists that
hereditarily furthermore, along these lines neglect to give adaptability to such
accommodation. Where the target of the exemption under the TRIPS depended on
an ethical quality premise, the Agreement has not characterized in respect to what
constitutes a 'genuine bias to the earth' and comparative prohibitions from
patentability have verifiably been barely interpreted. 15 It has been likewise
contended that the TRIPS administration has neglected to recognize the criticalness
of UN revelations that embrace human rights. 16 TRIPS necessities may involve
ranchers to suspend customary practices that were connected with cultivating their
capacity to maintain a standard nourishment supply versus advancement of
versatile genotypes in their homesteads.
The greater part of the licensed innovation assurance limits an agriculturist's
conventional routine of sparing collected harvest for resulting sowing. The
innovation, for example, the GURT (hereditary use limitation innovation) may further
render the gathered yield turning sterile. In any case, in creating nations where the
horticultural subsistence depends on customary techniques for cultivating such an
assortment of seeds won't help in easing the ruined state of the poor farmers. 17
Most of the hereditarily adjusted plants originate from the developed countries.
Notwithstanding, their potential business sector is focused in the developing
countries. The security standards in these nations are nearly permissive, basically
because of insufficient institutional limit or the administrative structure or
implementation.
Policy Framework and Speculations
It is beyond doubt that with a well planned intellectual property regime agricultural
advancement is imminent but with respect to developing nations, the idea will invite
speculation though records prove to the contrary. 18 The agricultural policy and the
legal regime of nations have been subject to continuous changes bearing the
importance of food security. Adopting a specific law or rule that involves the subject
15 Ho C M, Agricultural Biotechnology under the TRIPS and Beyond: Addressing Social Policies in a Pro- Patent
Environment, in Agricultural biotechnology and Intellectual Property Rights: Seeds of Change, edited by J P Kesan (CABI
International Publication, UK, Cromwell Press, Trowbridge), 2007.

16 Ibid.
17 Devlin Kuyek, Intellectual Property Rights: Ultimate Control over R &D in Asia, March 2001, GRAIN (Genetic Resource
Action International) as cited in Shah Anup, Food patents stealing indigenous knowledge?

18 The Journal of World Intellectual Property Rights, 7 (3) (2004) 261-286.

matter of food security becomes difficult as laws are varied and diverse and often
conflict in their ideologies.19
For countries where no form of intellectual property protection in agrobiotechnology had been introduced before 1994, the TRIPS Agreement has been
one of the triggers for the introduction of life patents in these countries.28 It is
pertinent to observe in this respect that though the provisions of the TRIPS might
conflict with other international agreements, the enforcement mechanism of the
TRIPS precedes over other agreements by default. At this level, it is unclear whether
the provisions of the Article 23.3 of TRIPS Agreement will still hold weight in the
instance it violates a norm of international law.
The international legal system, in particular, the TRIPS Agreement, gives significant
guidance to states on the ways in which they must re-orient their IPR policies in the
field of agriculture. However, in some areas that are of importance to developing
nations, for example, Farmers' rights and protection of traditional knowledge, the
universal legitimate system stays immature. Subsequently, developing nations have
the twin burden of adjusting to their current universal commitments and to embrace
legitimate systems in regions that are of uncommon enthusiasm to them even
where global law is discovered wanting.
The developed countries have underscored requiring a sui generis national
enactment. This is on the grounds that farming being the pillar and bearing a
nearby nexus with national economy. A large portion of the Asian nations rehearse
subsistence cultivating and are barely included in global exchange and
consequently contend on the recognizing elements of customary farming; and
accordingly organize on national objectives when actualizing plants breeder's rights.
Despite the fact that Plants Breeders' Rights may not separately raise the R&D costs
but rather may enhance the general arrangement of cultivating, yet the
conventional agrarian practices keep on surmounting in the developing nations.
With the modernization of agribusiness, the developed nations have gained quick
ground in different segments also. Independent of that point, interests in the
developed nations by private players are somewhat low. A reason being that such
modernization does not coordinate the reasonableness of little scale agriculturists
and particularly in nations where ranch possessions are little. Consequently, it is
expected that little scale ranchers have more stakes to lose in the example of
privatizing the raiser's rights and subsequently might straightforwardly influence
the welfare objectives of the state.
In the occasion where private players are permitted private division venture, it will
be coordinated towards consumerism instead of tending to the welfare strategy of
the state and rationing the biodiversity of the country.
19 Ibid.

nations, for example, ranchers' rights and insurance of conventional learning, the
universal legitimate system stays immature. Subsequently, creating nations have
the twin weight of adjusting to their current universal commitments and to embrace
legitimate systems in regions that are of uncommon enthusiasm to them even
where global law

is discovered wanting.26

From the connection of a creating country access to potential advantages of plant

raiser's rights can be recognized as a potential instrument for reducing the
nourishment emergency and hunger.29 disregarding their potential focal points, the
creating countries have underscored requiring a sui generis national enactment as
opposed to taking after the lines of the created countries. This is on the grounds
that farming being the pillar and bearing a nearby nexus with national economy. A
large portion of the Asian nations rehearse subsistence cultivating and are barely
included in global exchange and consequently contend on the recognizing elements
of customary farming; and accordingly organize on national objectives when
actualizing plants raiser's rights. In this connection, privatization in the territory of
rearing may likewise offer ascent to assortment of components - social, natural
With the modernization of agribusiness, the

created nations have gained quick ground in different segments also. Independent
of that point, interests in the creating nations by private players are somewhat low.
A reason being that such modernization does not coordinate the reasonableness of
little scale agriculturists and particularly in nations where ranch possessions are
little. Consequently, it is expected that little scale ranchers have more stakes to lose
in the example of privatizing the raiser's rights and subsequently might
straightforwardly influence the welfare objectives of the state.

In the occasion where private players are permitted private division venture, it will
be coordinated towards consumerism instead of tending to the welfare strategy of
the state and rationing the biodiversity of the country.

Conlcusion:

The test of upgrading sustenance security for every nation and area around the
globe will require colossal endeavors with respect to all26 ors included if act lack of
healthy sustenance should be annihilated. Nourishment frailty has been a long-term
sympathy toward creating countries and presentation of licensed innovation
assurance inside of the domain of farming constitute two related and huge changes
in the strategy environment for tending to sustenance security. In the setting of
creating countries, some of these enactments should be embraced or regardless of
the possibility that received, they are at the phase of beginning. In this way it is
ahead of schedule to foresee the ramifications of IPR assurance inside of these
nations. The created countries have kept up a star patent administration for the
plant assortment security.
The created countries have constantly utilized the creating countries as a potential
test dispatch cushion. Considering the Asian business sector being the biggest
shopper base there ought not be any inquiry concerning institutional and different
weights. The majority of the nations in Asia have approved TRIPS. The TRIPS
Agreement does not give creating nations the likelihood to maintain a strategic
distance from the presentation of plant assortment assurance. In any case, the sui
generis choice constitutes an open door that creating nations can use to build up an
IPR administration which suits their particular needs and which considers all their
global commitments, for example, responsibilities in natural bargains, farming
arrangements and human rights treaties.26 actually nations like India, Thailand31
and the Philippines32 have effectively added to their sui generis plant assortment
assurance laws.

Further, any approach or rights which infests into people in general hobbies must be
genuinely seen. Nourishment security does not as a matter of course mean amount
and accessibility of sustenance but rather additionally the accessibility of value,
nutritious, solid sustenance. Contentions have been sent by numerous
communicating worries on the nourishing limit and wellbeing of 'Frankenstein
plants' or 'super weed'. Human populace of the creating nations ought not be
permitted to experience the ill effects of these test forms. It is somewhat hard to
foresee with reference to what sort of effect nourishment items from GMOs will have
on people. The human rights is a worldwide concern and thusly issues should be
tended to in the right point of view, especially, sui generis framework suitable to the
separate creating nations while perceiving the rights.
Insurance of customary information is another perspective which should be tended
to. Albeit recognized as being essential, the execution and authorization are fairly
powerless. Further, the sustenance security criteria of nations change from
quantitative, subjective and nourishing levels. The nourishment utilization design
additionally fluctuates from country to country. It is along these lines important to

perceive the issues exclusively and in that lies the adequacy and the requirement
for a compelling sui generis framework over a strict patent administration.