Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Protecting seeds as commons with an open-source license

OpenSourceSeeds (OSS) is a European initiative of the German Association for AgriCulture and Ecology (Agrecol), launched in April 2017. It pursues the objective to protect agricultural seeds as commons. It helps to establish a commons-based seed sector as a second pillar next to the private seed sector. The initiative has four core components: (1) licensing new varieties open-source and documenting them in a database; (ii) propagating and introducing OS seeds to the market; (iii) raising public awareness for seeds as a common good; and (iv) research and Development on new concepts to finance non-private (IPR-free) plant breeding. Currently, it has 9 new varieties/populations licensed open source (3 tomato varieties, 3 wheat varieties, 1 sweetcorn, 1 pepper and 1 potato variety). These OS varieties are listed in sales catalogues. Lessons learned include that plant breeders to use the license takes time, developing new financing concepts for plant breeding is a key issue for success, and the principle of seeds as commons is quite popular among consumers.
Most relevant categories
  1. Facilitation of farmers’ access to a diversity of PGRFA through community seed banks, seed networks and other measures improving farmers’ choices of a wider diversity of PGRFA.
Also relevant categories
  1. Recognition of local and indigenous communities’, farmers’ contributions to conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA, such as awards and recognition of custodian/guardian farmers
  2. Approaches to encourage income-generating activities to support farmers’ conservation and sustainable use of PGRFA
  3. Catalogues, registries and other forms of documentation of PGRFA and protection of traditional knowledge
  4. Legal measures for the implementation of Farmers’ Rights, such as legislative measures related to PGRFA.
Institution/organizationNon Governmental Organization
Provision of Art. 9 addressedArt. 9.1; Art. 9.2a; Art. 9.3
TypesTechnical
CountriesGermany
RegionsEurope
KeywordsBiodiversity registries; Seed catalogues; Seed network; Seed system
Resource linkhttps://www.fao.org/3/ca9319en/ca9319en.pdf
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