African governments sell out their farmers in secret seeds protection deal
African governments, ignoring the protests of their farmers and civil society, this week agreed an oppressive ‘plant variety protection protocol' that will open up their countries to commercial seed monopolists, while limiting farmers rights to save, use, exchange, replant, improve, distribute and sell the seeds they have developed over countless generations. The Arusha Protocol for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants regional legal framework gives intellectual property rights to breeders while restricting the age-old practices of African farmers to freely save, use, share and sell seeds and/or propagating material.
