El carácter democrático de la perspectiva transformadora…

It is important, at this stage, to highlight interlinkages between IPR regimes, trade and agricultural development at the global level, as these should be kept in mind by any country entering into the phase of law development on PVP.

The adoption of IPR laws in developed countries, especially Europe, took place in the context of a strong seed industry and declining seed-saving practices. This allowed the seed industry to make strong demands in terms of IPR over new plant varieties, leading to the emergence of the UPOV Convention.

Strong IPR regimes on plant varieties have contributed to profound changes in European agriculture. Specifi cally, the introduction of PVP has been accompanied by 92

• a reduction in the proportion of the population engaged in farming; • the gradual eclipse of public sector plant breeding by the private sector;

• a complete change in the relationship of farmers to the means of agricultural production.

The process of consolidation of farms — and associated disappearance of smaller ‘unproductive’ farming units — in Europe and North America has been widely documented. 93 _{This should be present in the consciousness of the people who design}

agriculture-related legislation that shape the agrarian economies of developing countries. The substitution of public sector breeding

89 Ibid.

90 Louwaars, N., 2006.

91 Eyzaguirre, P. and E. Dennis, 2007, p. 1493. See also Meinzen-Dick, R.S. et al. (eds), 2002. 92 Jaff é, W. and J. van Wijk, 1995.

4.

Implications of seed industrialization on gender roles

by private seed companies is already at play in many developing countries, and signs of such developments are perceptible in India, where the private seed industry is expanding at a fast pace.

Change in farmers’ relations to the means of agricultural production is linked to many factors, including trade liberalization and the growth of agri-business. Trade liberalization accentuates specialization, as each region or country is expected to focus on the areas of production for which it has comparative advantage in growing conditions and production means (land, labour, capital). The globalization of trade in food results in the gradual and steady lowering of agricultural prices. 94 _{It also accelerates the}

dismantling of local economies and deepens the dependency of farmers on agro-industrial capital. Indeed, international trade of agricultural produce and food items is increasingly controlled by a small number of multinational companies. A study shows that fi ve large companies control 90 percent of the world trade in wheat, maize, coff ee, cacao and pineapple, 80 percent of the trade in tea, 70 percent of the banana and rice market and 60 percent of the sugar market. 95

Agro-industrial fi rms extend control over farms and markets through horizontal and vertical integration. While horizontal integration may, for instance, involve “the global coordination of multiple production sites for a year-round supply of fresh produce,” 96 _{vertical integration refers to the expansion of a company’s activities into various production stages of a single product.}

An example is industrial bread manufacturing where a company controls the entire production chain from the intensive cultivation of wheat varieties to the packaging and marketing of packaged bread. In such a set-up, agro-food companies are able to infl uence varietal choices made by farmers through the release of recommended varieties. This practice is very prevalent in cereal production throughout Europe, especially for crops like wheat, durum (a wheat-related cereal used to make pasta) and barley. Agricultural output for these crops is almost entirely purchased by large agro-industrial conglomerates involved, respectively, in the manufacturing of bread and biscuits, of pasta and related-products, and in the brewing of malt for beer production. 97

Processing industries regularly publish ‘lists of recommended varieties’, which become very widely used by growers. 98 _These

lists end up shaping farmers’ varietal choices, indirectly establishing a dependency situation for farmers on commercial processors. As agro-business becomes more global, such commercial practices are spreading to many parts of the world, including South Asia (especially in the high-margin vegetable market). These practices are likely to spark critical changes for farmers, biodiversity and local markets, including

• a decline in farmers’ ability to make independent decisions about crop varieties and farming methods;

• a decrease in crop genetic diversity due to the dominance of a very limited number of varieties, with adverse ecological consequences for agro-systems;

• a reduction in the selection criteria retained by breeders, as they have to align with the industry’s preferred criteria in order to maximize seed sales and returns on investment;

• a lack of breeding eff orts to develop varieties suited to non-industrial production and transformation systems (i.e., with criteria of rusticity, adaptability to crop mixtures and taste);

• a growing concentration of actors in the breeding sector, both at the national and international level.

At the crux of agro-industrial systems are plant breeders’ rights, which secure returns to breeders on their investment. Yet, when agricultural production is defi ned and modelled by agri-business, farmers do not necessarily stand to benefi t from rises in

94 See Mazoyer, M. and L. Roudart, 1998. 95 Torres, F., et al., 2000.

96 McMichael, M., 1998. 97 Pionetti, C., 2005, p. 206.

98 As an example, in the case of hard wheat (also known as durum) production in France, the French Committee on Durum-based Agro-industries published a list of 26 ‘preferred varieties’ amongst the 71 breeders’ varieties of durum present on the market in 2002. Five varieties occupied 63 percent of the area sown to durum that year, and four of these appeared on the list of recommended varieties. Pionetti, C., 2004, Le Contrôle

productivity and increased sales of agricultural commodities. 99 _{Moreover, there is increasing realization that the UPOV Convention}

has had severe implications for farmers, like the need to pay a royalty in order to reuse farm-saved seeds or the reduced freedom for farmers to choose their production methods. 100