Plant Variety Protection in Practice in Vietnam: The Pains in the Gains Achieved

The report published by SEARICE, APBREBES and Fastenopfer analyses the factors which led to Vietnam’s agricultural development in the last few decades. The main finding of the research is simple: “While plant breeding is necessary, agricultural development must be detached from the notion that a draconian plant variety protection law is a fundamental prerequisite. The PVP law has marginal effects to crop development. Vietnam’s agricultural development is not the result of the PVP Law, but rather a complex interaction of various interventions by the government. The UPOV-style PVP Law is incompatible with Vietnam’s seed system, highly concentrated on rice and may even threaten research and development on other crops.