Supporting a Smooth Implementation of the Three-Pronged Approach to Sustainable Seed Innovation: Legal & Ethical Issues (Part II) Mrinalini Kochupillai Disengage Benefit Sharing for PGR Access from Downstream IPR Protection In the context of the Seed Treaty (and the Indian PPV & FR Act, 2001), it is necessary to re-think the current legal provisions that mandate benefit sharing only if the downstream research with PGRs is protected by intellectual property rights.[1] It may be possible to justify this current limitation…

In the next post in the ongoing blog post series on The Sustainable Seed Innovations Project, Natalie Kopytko, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at University of Leeds shares stories of farmers using traditional methods to store seeds. Laying the Foundation for Innovation Natalie Kopytko A foundation seed is the ‘pure seed stocks grown by or under the supervision of a public agency for use in the production of registered and certified seed’. When it comes to ‘informal’ farmer-level innovation, foundation seed(s) take…

Research Funding for Sustainable Agriculture: A Non-Sustainable State of Affairs (Part II) Julia Köninger[1] Consequences of the Sub-Optimal Research Funding Going into Sustainable Agricultural Systems  The gap in research fund creates a gap in scientific knowledge.[1] Studies have shown, that a major knowledge gap exists especially vis-à-vis the quantification of costs of agricultural production systems, from their environmental, social and health perspective.[2] Further research is needed in the area of eco-functional intensification of agriculture,[3] and also, research on ecosystem services…

In the following two part post in the ongoing blog post series on The Sustainable Seed Innovations Project, Julia Köninger (Technical University Munich) investigated research funds that flow into different farming approaches. The post shows that most fundings currently flow into high-input farming neglecting the sustainability of these practices. It emphasizes the consequent dearth of research for low-input farming and shows the urge to adapt research funds in order to close current knowledge gaps. Research Funding for Sustainable Agriculture: A…

Prong 3: Re-thinking Incentive Structures Blockchain/DLT Supported Incentives for Sustainable Seed Innovations? (Part III) Mrinalini Kochupillai iii) Blockchain/DLT and In Situ Innovations with Agrobiodiversity As discussed in above, three major hurdles that need to be overcome in order to facilitate sustainable seed innovations (especially by small farmers) as well as monetization of sustainable seed  innovations for the benefit of small farmers and their rural communities are: (i) the issue of traceability: the origin of indigenous seeds is rather difficult to trace…

 Prong 3: Re-thinking Incentive Structures Blockchain/DLT Supported Incentives for Sustainable Seed Innovations? (Part II) Mrinalini Kochupillai (i) Digital Ledger Technologies/Blockchain: A Brief Introduction Blockchain technology, a special version of the more generic ‘digital ledger technologies’ (DLTs), came into being around 10 years ago with Satoshi Nakomoto’s white paper on Bitcoin.[1] More recently, these technologies have been in the media, not only because of ongoing efforts of the Indian government to ban cryptocurrencies, but also because several supporters of these technologies…

Prong 3 of the Sustainable Seed Innovations Project comes while India is looking to adopt various blockchain solutions (including blockchain based payment systems) on the one hand, and debating a ban on cryptocurrencies on the other. This three-part blog post (the next in the ongoing blog post series on The Sustainable Seed Innovations Project) provides readers an easy to understand overview of the key beneficial features of blockchain technology, how the potential use cases of blockchain technology go well beyond the…