TRIPs in agriculture of India: An overview

The TRIPs is the most significant element of GATT as much as knowledge and invention based industrial segments are concerned. Under TRIPS Agreement all the WTO members require to provide intellectual property rights protection in the form of Plant Breeders’ Right (PBR) on all the new varieties of plants within their legislation. Article 27.1 of TRIPs Agreement entail members to provide for patents "for all inventions, whether products or processes, in all fields of technology". Article 27.3 (b) permits the exclusion of plant and animals from patentability but not microorganisms. Also, it entails member nations to allow for the protection of new plant varieties by means of patents, or an effective sui generis system, or a combination of both. The application of IPRs in plant breeding in developing nations have raised many important issues, including access to technology by smallholders, the role of agricultural research in the public sector, the development of the local private seed sector, the status of farmer-developed varieties, and the rising North-South technology distribution that restricts access to plant germplasm and research too.IPR model for plant breeding could play a measure in agricultural development, but the challenge is to maintain the right balance between incentives for innovation and access to productive resources.