African CSOs kick against Arusha Protocol

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa(AFSA) has vented its spleen on African governments for ignoring the protest of farmers and proceeded to adopt the Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plant (Arusha PVP Protocol).

AFSA believes that the adoption of the Arusha PVP protocol is an oppressive move meant to open up African countries to commercial seed monopolists while limiting farmers' right to save, use, exchange, replant, as well as distribute and sell the seeds they have developed over the countless number of years.

AFSA argues that the Arusha Protocol is a revised version of a previous Draft ARIPO Protocol which had come under severe attack by Civil Society groups across the continent because it was based on the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) which was a restrictive and inflexible international legal guideline totally unsuitable for Africa.

The ARIPO PVP Protocol, according to AFSA, proposed extremely strong intellectual property rights to breeders while restricting the age-old practices of African farmers to save, use, and share propagating materials... CONTINUE TO THE FULL STORY