Philip Seufert, the Natural Resources coordinator at FIAN International, discusses farmers rights within the context of farmers’ seed systems. He emphasises the importance of protecting farmers seed systems as a way to realise farmers’ rights, rather than focusing on certain isolated elements, such as protection of farmers’ varieties.
Flora IP (FI): Can you discuss farmers’ seed systems?
Philip Seufert (PS): Farmers’ seed systems are the way through which farmers, peasants, indigenous peoples manage their seeds. When we talk about farmers’ seed systems, we usually speak about collective practices; there is always some form of interaction and a social aspect to it. Seed systems cover several components that are closely linked, and which together define how farmers use and manage their seeds.
One aspect of the seed system is the farming practices – the selection of seeds and generally, the way farmers produce. Seed production by farmers and indigenous peoples is not separate from their agricultural activities. Seed production is not separated from agricultural activities in the sense that the seeds are selected from the harvest.
A second aspect of farmers’ seed systems is knowledge. When I speak of knowledge, it is not restricted to knowledge of a specific crop or variety or specific plant characteristics, but it encompasses the knowledge of how to cultivate them and how to react if there are problems of plant health. It is not just information. This knowledge is embedded in a social system. It is not knowledge that only one person has. It is the knowledge that has been built in a community, and that is continuously shared and keeps evolving. It is dynamic. It is not applied only once, but it is learnt and developed through constant observation.
A third aspect of these seed systems concerns the practices of conservation and exchanged. This refers to how farmers’ seeds are stored, managed and exchanged. The exchange is very flexible, depending on the local context. The rules for exchanges – which may include the selling of seeds – may be unwritten, but they exist and are determined by the communities.
A final aspect of farmer seed systems is culture. In several countries, the seed is not just a resource. It has other meanings, and there are practices linked to it that have spiritual and cultural expressions. For example, before sowing or harvesting, there may be rituals.
Farmers’ seed system is a useful concept or framework to capture this complex and broad relationship between farmers and indigenous peoples, and their seeds.
This relationship is unique and specific to farmers and indigenous peoples. When we talk about farmers’ rights, I believe farmers’ seed systems are an important aspect of realising these.
FI: Why are these farmers’ seed systems important?
PS: As I already said, farmers’ seed systems are the way farmers and indigenous peoples access, use and manage their seeds. It does not mean that there cannot be problems with these systems, but they are critical for rural people’s autonomy and the realisation of their rights. I have worked a bit in West Africa, and there, for instance, it is fair to say that 80 per cent of seeds farmers use go through farmers’ seed systems. This refers first and foremost to local or farmer varieties but may also include seeds of commercial varieties. While I cannot give you a concrete percentage of the farmers’ seed systems globally, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) states that 80 per cent of the food in the world is produced by small-scale food producers and farming communities. Therefore, I would also not be surprised if the share of farmers seed is similar to that. I know in West Africa it is around 80 per cent as I said. There are regional differences, and the numbers are different in other parts of the world.
Significantly, farmers’ seed systems support the autonomy of farming communities.
If farmers and indigenous peoples manage and have the knowledge and control about a set of varieties, they can react to changing climatic conditions. Indeed, a key feature of farmers’ seeds is that they are constantly evolving. This makes farmers and indigenous people resilient and autonomous. It is also important to understand that farmers’ seed systems are entirely closed systems. Farmers may also integrate so-called improved seeds into their systems, where relevant. If these seeds proof to be interesting, they will select and adapt them to their local conditions.
FI: How should we conceptualise farmers’ rights as per provisions of Article 9 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)?
PS: Looking at article 9, the ITPGRFA provides for seven explicit farmers rights, including the protection of traditional knowledge, equitable access and benefit sharing, participation in decision making, alongside the right to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed/propagating material. These rights have been recently reaffirmed in Article 19 of the ‘United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.’ Also, the ‘United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ speaks about the rights to seeds. Farmers rights are human rights because they are crucial for the realisation of human rights, particularly the right to food and nutrition, but also in relation to other cultural rights, the rights of farmers and indigenous peoples to produce and choose their farming systems. The FAO is bound by the UN charter, and farmers’ rights are part of the broader human rights framework.
On the contrary, intellectual property rights are part of the international trade law regime, which also has its rules and treaties, but is different from the human rights framework. Although human rights and intellectual property dimensions are sometimes mixed in discussions, it is important to note that farmers’ rights are not intellectual property rights and intellectual property rights are not farmers’ rights. This also means that intellectual property rights are not the way to realise farmers’ rights. This does not mean that there is no relation, especially in the realities faced by rural people where intellectual property rights often restrict the exercise of farmers’ rights, but they are different. Let us not confuse these two sets of rights, but let us thoroughly analyse their connections and contradictions, in order to protect and guarantee the human rights of farmers and indigenous peoples.
FI: How can ratifying countries of the ITPGRFA realise farmers’ rights?
PS: There are several ways. For the group that I am supporting here (at the Second Meeting of the Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers Rights), the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, which is the international platform of small-scale food producers’ organisations, the most important way of implementing farmers’ rights is through legal frameworks at national levels. It does not mean that legal frameworks are the only support that farmers need. However, when we talk about farmers’ rights, we are talking about ‘rights’ and rights become realities if they are laws because it means you can claim them if there are violations. That can only be done if there is a law. Although there are many ways to support farmers and farmers practices, for farmers’ rights specifically, it is necessary to create legal frameworks that recognise, protect and guarantee these rights, and the exercise of these rights through farmers’ seed systems.
The industrial seed system is regulated; there are certification laws, intellectual property laws, amongst others. Farmers and indigenous peoples usually do not have those types of legal protection of their seed systems. There is an imbalance. We think that the best way forward is not by protecting only farmers’ varieties but protecting the seed systems that encompass the different dimensions, practices and knowledge through and with which rural people use and manage their seeds. If you protect only the varieties, you take them out of their existing systems, and all the social aspects I discussed in the beginning would get lost.
FI: Can you share examples of existing farmers’ rights provisions?
PS: There is no country with legislation that provides legal protection to farmers’ seed systems. Nevertheless, there are some countries with interesting provisions that are relevant to farmers’ rights. There is the Indian Law, for example, which protects small-scale farmers’ rights to use, exchange and sell farm-saved seed. There are some countries with laws on specific aspects of farmers rights. For example, Peru has an interesting law on traditional knowledge. Even in Europe, where the commercial seed sector dominates, in Italy and France, there are some regional laws with good examples of farmers rights provisions.
FI: What changes relating to small scale farmers interests would you want to see at the international, regional and national levels?
PS: First, would be to recognise that when discussing the implementation of farmers rights, it is important to involve farmers and their organisations in a meaningful way. For example, at the Second Meeting of the Ad-Hoc Technical Expert Group on Farmers Rights, it would have been important to see more farmers. Moreover, indigenous peoples’ organisations have not been involved at all into these discussions.
Second, it would be useful to move away from isolating certain elements from the farmers’ seed systems. For example, (as mentioned earlier) focusing solely on protecting farmers varieties as a way to realise farmers’ rights. There are several actors – some of which may even be well-intentioned – who think that intellectual property rights for farmers varieties is a way to stop appropriation and misuse of these varieties by other actors. However, that will not solve the problem. Instead, it would lead to the loss of the system because certain elements are isolated. In addition, such an approach means to put farmers’ seeds in the realm of commercial law, instead of protecting them as human rights. I think that if we start to see farmers’ rights in the context of farmers’ seed systems – which until now is not a perspective taken by many actors -, this will change the discussions we have. Not everyone will agree to this, but one of the tasks of the peasant organisations and indigenous peoples’ organisations that FIAN works with is to push and promote these discussions and to also think about the practical implications of this line of thought. That is the work we have for the future.
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