10/12/2021 - Government Policies

KEY POINTS

·        India is the world’s fifth largest market for seeds, plant varieties and vegetatively propagated varieties (potato is one such since the tuber itself is the “seed”).

·        The market size is estimated at $3 billion a year, although the volume is significant, since India is largely a low-value seeds market.

·        The seed sector is also a large one, with more than 540 registered seed companies operating in India, according to the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare.

·        The private sector now accounts for 65 per cent of seed production in India and is an essential part of the agri-innovation chain in India.

·        The lack of protection for intellectual property, and a complicated and slow process for registration of new varieties has also not helped.

·        The PPVFR Authority’s demand for parental lines (to do its own testing) has also deterred many foreign players from introducing the latest varieties.

·        We also need to ensure that the farmer has a stake in innovation by ensuring better realisations for adopting innovative varieties.

·        For this, we need much more investment in farm infrastructure, including processing and pre-processing plants, as well as “identity protected” supply chains.

·        India’s plant variety protection law is not broken. Nor is it anti-innovation, as a superficial reading of the Pepsi potato case may suggest.

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