Background Breeding
Patents on plants can help with sustainability
New breeding techniques are keeping people busy in Europe. Technology advances while legislation lags behind is a common complaint from breeders. In the background there is also a discussion about the extent to which patents on plant properties can be registered.
Various interest groups fear the creation of monopolies, with a few large breeding companies holding the patents. As a result, smaller breeders cannot develop new varieties without infringing existing patents. According to opponents, this inhibits the development of new varieties.
wide discussion
A group of scientists from Wageningen University & Research (WUR) argues in favor of broadening the discussion. René Smulders, Clemens van de Wiel and Bert Lotz of WUR submitted their paper earlier this month Agronomy published on the compatibility of intellectual property law with making agriculture more sustainable.
Intellectual property comes in various forms, from plant breeders' rights or patents to brand names and contract cultivation. These systems have been set up so that breeders have a chance to recoup the investment for the development of a new variety. Broad access to new technologies and knowledge remains a requirement, according to the scientists, even when reforming the current system. But more attention should be paid in the debate to the opportunities to use intellectual property to make agriculture more sustainable.
Win win situation
The researchers give an example. For example, consider a potato variety with a single phytophthora resistance. By cultivating such a variety via a contract system, the breeder can stipulate that the grower is obliged to spray against phytophthora on the basis of a decision support system. Under normal circumstances, the growers need to spray much less than with a non-resistant variety, while the chance that the potato blight will break through the resistance is kept as small as possible.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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