Benefits of plant variety protection

• Author: Rolf Jördens
• Position: Vice Secretary-General, International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV)
• Pages: 20-23

The agricultural sector is the backbone of the

economy and employment in most developing

countries. Its share of the gross domestic product

(GDP) is often more than 50 percent and, in some

countries, up to 80 percent of the active popula-

tion earn their living in agriculture. But in most of

these countries, agricultural productivity is ex-

tremely low, with yields often low and unstable

from year to year. A large proportion of this agri-

cultural activity is subsistence farming that gen-

erates no financial income and is, in many cases,

insufficient to feed farmers’ families. Under those

circumstances, the agricultural sector is unable

to contribute to a country’s overall economic de-

velopment and, even less, to respond to the chal-

lenges of feeding a growing population, reliev-

ing rural poverty and mitigating climate change.

One of the reasons for poor agricultural perform-

ance in many developing countries is a lack of

progress in improving the performance of tradi-

tional plant varieties over the centuries. In con-

trast, the graphs (at right) illustrate progress

achieved in wheat yield in France and maize yield

in the U.S. over a period of two centuries. Clearly,

the advent of modern plant breeding has en-

abled yields – which previously were stagnating

or declining – to increase substantially. It is esti-

mated that improved varieties have accounted

for more than 50 percent of overall yield increas-

es for important crops in Europe. The remaining

growth is due to improved agricultural tech-

niques, including fertilizers and better pest and

disease control. But improvement in yield is not

the only major objective in modern plant breed-

ing. Others include resistance to environmental

and biological stress, and quality.

Government measures and increased public and

private investment in the seed sector are long-

term requirements if agriculture is to meet the

challenge of food security in the face of popula-

tion growth and climate change – so concluded

the September 2009 Second World Seed

Conference1. Specifically, intellectual property

(IP) protection was deemed to be crucial to any

sustainable contribution of plant breeding and

seed supply. An effective plant variety protection

(PVP) system was identified as a key enabler for

investment in breeding and the development of

new varieties of plants.

The conference considered that UPOV member-

ship played an important role by instilling in

breeders the confidence to introduce new vari-

eties. UPOV seeks to provide and promote an ef-

fective system of PVP, in order to encourage the

development of new varieties of plants for the

benefit of society.

Encouraging sustainable

breeding programs

Plant breeding requires know-how and invest-

ment in terms of time and human and financial

resources. It may take 15 years to create a new

variety with improved features and an additional

number of years for it to be introduced into the

market and taken up by farmers.

In many cases, it is easy to reproduce (copy) a va-

BENEFITS OF PLANT

VARIETY PROTECTION

1 The Second World

Seed Conference

“Responding to the

Challenges of a

Changing World: The

Role of New Varieties

and High Quality Seed

in Agriculture“ was co-

organized by the Food

and Agriculture

Organization (FAO),

the Organisation for

Economic Co-

operation and

Development (OECD),

the International Union

for the Protection of

New Varieties of Plants

(UPOV), the

International Seed

Federation (ISF) and

the International Seed

Testing Association

(ISTA)

JUNE 2010

20

Dr. Rolf Jördens, Vice Secretary-General, International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants

(UPOV), an intergovernmental organization that shares its headquarters with WIPO in Geneva, has pre-

pared this article for WIPO Magazine. The article highlights the benefits of plant variety protection in

meeting global challenges.