Executive Summary A National Consultation on Farmers’ Rights to Genetic Resources – Stewardship or Ownership was held in Bangalore on the 22nd and 23rd of May 2009. It was co-sponsored by Green Foundation, Bangalore, and the Center for Gandhian Studies, Bangalore University. The participants included all groups of stakeholders in the issues that were discussed, including farmers and farmers’ representatives, NGOs, the PVPFRA,.. Read more...   Executive Summary - Day 1 The objective of the seminar was to discuss various issues pertaining to farmers’ rights to genetic resources. Issues debated included the role and impact of the PVPFRA in India, registration of farmers’ varieties, farmers’ access to benefit sharing, and compensation due to crop loss, among others. All of these issues influence the future of agriculture in India, and.. Read more...   Executive Summary - Day 2 During the second day of the workshop, presentations were made by local farmer breeders with regard to varieties that they had cultivated. Seed exchange by seed savers was led by Dr Narayana Reddy, Organic Farmer, Doddaballapur. Discussions followed, with questions being asked about the farmers’ varieties, which were raised by other farmers and plant breeders, as well as the official... Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 1 Agro-biodiversity: A Public Good with Diverse Social and Private Values – Its Impact on Food Sovereignty Speakers: Dr. Devinder Sharma Protection of plant varieties seems to no longer be a national priority. Our food sovereignty is threatened by Read more...     Day 1 Session - Topic 2 Conceptual and Technical Issues on Farmers’ Rights to Genetic Resources Speakers: Dr.Nagarajan The PVPFRA act passed by the Indian parliament has dovetailed into it, the Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 3 Farmers’ Rights and Seeds Bill Speakers: Dr.Bala Ravi 1. Farmers Varieties–Valuable Resources for Food security-Today and tomorrowFarmers’ varieties have one or more of the following.. Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 4 National Policy Dynamics in Plant Variety Protection and Seed Laws Speakers: Dr.M.K.Ramesh The previous presentations by Dr.Nagarajan and Dr.Bala Ravi has... Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 5 WTO Negotiations and Regional Policy Dynamics in Farmers Rights in South Asia Speakers: Kamalesh Adhikari Not much is happening in WTO after the Dhoha round. The developing Read more...     Day 1 Session - Topic 6 Impact of Free Trade Agreements & bilateral investments– insights on the laws in South Asia Speakers: Dr.Bhaskar Goswamy There are 3 key players in the trade when we focus on North-South. They are US, European Union (EU) and.. Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 7 Approach to protecting indigenous varieties: Experience of Maharashtra Speakers: Raghunandan Velankar Maharashtra Gene Bank project was initiated about one and half years back, supported by Science & Technology commission of... Read more...   Day 1 Session - Topic 8 Open Source Policy as an option for Farmers’ Rights to Access to Genetic Resources Speakers: K.R. Srinivas This is a new perspective on Farmer Rights – which is goes beyond the Acts and regulations. It looks the rights from an Open Source perspective. Read more...   Day 2 Session - Topic 1 Seed Exchange by Seed Savers and Presentation by Farmer Breeders Speakers: Dr Narayana Reddy Historically, buying and selling seeds in our country and culture was not a common practice and was actually considered as an activity which would be against the accepted cultural and Read more...     Day 2 Session - Topic 2 Concluding Remarks to presentation of Farmers’ varieties and Seed Exchange: Day 2 Session Speakers: Dr.Nagarajan The program has shown the vibrancy and resilience of farmers. From the presentations and Seed exchange it is clear that such efforts can be very successful Read more...                 Annexures | Home GREEN Foundation