Exemptions or flexibilities in seed registration for farmers’ varieties

In Brazil, Peru and Nepal, responsible ministries and authorities, along with partnering NGOs and/or research organizations, developed policies, laws and regulations to facilitate registration of farmer varieties. Objectives of these initiatives were to provide options for the registration of farmer varieties that are easy, low cost and appropriate to the character of these varieties; to document farmers’ varieties and knowledge; to protect them from biopiracy; and to facilitate their dissemination at larger scale. In Brazil, a seed law offering voluntary registration of farmer varieties under specific criteria was passed in 2003. In Peru, a law listing native crops for protection was passed in 2005; furthermore, a national register was established. In Nepal, the Agricultural Biodiversity Policy of 2007 (amended in 2014) identified participatory plant breeding (PPB) as a strategy to enhance local varieties; criteria for the registration of such varieties in the national registration system were adapted in 2005. In Brazil, efforts to promote farmer varieties, combined with a wider agroecology approach, family farmer and food security programmes, resulted in enhanced food security nationally by 2013. In Nepal, PPB varieties have been successfully registered and sold; in Peru, farmer varieties have been maintained and used.