Plant Breeders’ Rights Policy.

This Plant Breeders’ Rights Policy is a sectoral policy document at the national level. The objectives of the Policy is to: 1. provide an internationally recognized system for plant variety protection; 2. stimulate economic growth by ensuring the availability of plant varieties for South African agriculture; and 3. contribute towards the sustainable use and conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
In South Africa, the Plant Breeders’ Rights (PBR) Act, 1976 was revised in 1996 without a holistic policy to support legislation and regulations and to serve as a guideline document for the implementation of activities and services aimed at improving the administration and management of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act in South Africa. This Policy Document analyzes the problems associated with farmers’ rights, intellectual property and sustainable use of biodiversity, exploitation and biopiracy of indigenous resources, ownership and research activities, lackness of a formal advisory body to support the regulatory officers, limited number of protected genera and species, compulsory licences, technical requirements for granting plant variety protection relevant to human resource capacity and Genetically Modified varieties, etc. Based on the situation analysis, policy approach is recommended to address the problem. In the case of sui generis systems, the eligibility requirements are less onerous but the scope of rights is rather narrow, whilst the eligibility requirements for patents are high and difficult to achieve with a broad scope of the rights. Considering South Africa’s developmental context, the sui generis system is considered most appropriate. In support of the recommended policy approach, the policy instruments, institutional arrangements and the outcomes are proposed. The main outcomes include: amendment of the Plant Breeders‟ Rights Act, 1976 (Act No. 15 of 1976); effective protection of plant varietie; extension of protection to all genera and species; establishment of National Authority on plant breeders’ rights and PBR Advisory Committee; increased awareness of PBR matters; recognition of the contribution of farmers to plant genetic diversity; human resources development and capacity building; etc.