International Development and Intellectual Property: The Impact of Seed Exchange and Replacement on Innovation among Small-Scale Farmers in India

全球发展面临的主要挑战之一是如何安排围绕知识产权(IP)的法律和习俗，以鼓励创新。该项目综合了Radick在长期科技史上关于知识产权的理论和概念工作、Kochupillai对印度植物品种的知识产权和创新的法律实证研究，以及生活艺术基金会的资源，将对创新的印度农民进行样本研究，以探索在发展中国家组织创新的两种方式的比较优势和劣势。印度农民传统上参加了一种非正式的文化，一季又一季地保存种子(保存种子)和交换种子(交换种子)，在这种制度下，新的品种会定期出现和培育。最近，印度政府推行了一种不同的制度，修改了法律，加强了对从国营机构或私营公司获得的科学衍生品种的知识产权保护，并鼓励农民通过从市场购买种子来定期更换种子库存(种子更换)。一个关键问题是，越来越多地推广种子替代政策和以“排他性”为基本理念的知识产权制度，是否会对印度农村农民的分享文化以及与种子有关的创新产生负面影响。印度农民达吉·拉姆吉·霍布拉加德的案件使这种效应的可能性变得更加戏剧化。他收集种子并年复一年地重新种植，最终开发出一种新的水稻品种，在整个地区很受欢迎。霍布拉加德很高兴与其他村庄的农民分享他的种子，这是该地区小农户的典型文化。但当大学研究人员将他的种子用于实验，并在四年后发布了一个改良品种时，他们并没有相信霍布拉加德。此外，根据一项管理知识产权(IP)和植物品种的法律，霍布拉加德无权分享这种新品种的销售利润。该项目将分为三个阶段。在第一阶段，一名部分在利兹大学、部分在慕尼黑马克斯·普朗克创新与竞争研究所工作的项目研究员将对相关学术文献进行系统的背景研究，同时利用植物品种应用数据库(可从印度植物管理局免费获得)确定接受采访的印度农民。第二阶段将在印度进行为期两个月的实地考察，从一个地区到另一个地区，以便与创新农民--即登记了新植物品种的农民--进行深入访谈，以了解他们对围绕印度植物品种创新的不同知识产权文化的看法和经验，以及对农业生物多样性的相关影响。这位研究人员还将在印度当地/地区电台发表讲话，宣传该项目。在第三阶段，研究人员将返回利兹处理采访数据，并制作一篇期刊文章、一篇或多篇贸易期刊文章等，以及一份提交给基金会的报告。在整个项目中，研究人员将使用社交媒体、基金会的网站和相关手段来宣传该项目的发现。该项目将在班加罗尔举行一次会议，项目团队、农民、政策制定者和植物育种者将参加会议。鉴于联合国最近发布的一份报告(http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2012d3_en.pdf)强调了小规模可持续农业对世界各地农业和环境未来的重要性，这项研究特别中肯，对小农户和国际农业具有相关性。

One of the major challenges facing global development is the question of how to arrange the laws and customs surrounding intellectual property (IP) in order to encourage innovation. Bringing together Radick's theoretical and conceptual work on IP over the long-run of the history of science and technology, Kochupillai's legal-empirical studies of IP and innovation concerning plant varieties in India, and the resources of the Art of Living Foundation, this project will study a sample of innovative Indian farmers in order to explore the comparative advantages and disadvantages of two ways of organising innovation in a developing nation. Indian farmers have traditionally participated in an informal culture of keeping seeds season after season (seed saving) and of swapping seeds (seed exchange), and under this system, new varieties have periodically emerged and been cultivated. More recently, the Indian government has promoted a different system, changing the law to give enhanced IP protection to scientifically derived varieties from state-run institutions or private firms, and encouraging farmers to replace their seed stocks regularly (seed replacement) by purchasing seeds from the marketplace. A key question is whether this increasing promotion of policies of seed replacement and IP regimes that have "exclusivity" as their basic underlying rationale could have a negative effect on cultures of sharing, and therefore on seed-related innovations, among farmers in rural India. The possibility of such an effect was dramatized by the case of the Indian farmer Dadji Ramji Khobragade. Collecting seeds and replanting them year on year, he eventually developed a new rice variety which became popular throughout the region. As is typical of the culture among small farmers of the regions, Khobragade was happy to share his seeds with farmers from other villages. But when university researchers took his seeds to conduct experiments, and four years later released an improved variety, they did not credit Khobragade. Furthermore, under a law governing intellectual property (IP) and plant varieties, Khobragade was not entitled to any share of the profits from the sale of this new variety.The project will have three phases. In the first phase, a project researcher based partly at the University of Leeds and partly at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, will undertake systematic background study of the relevant scholarly literatures while at the same time using the Plant Variety Application database (freely available from the Plant Authority of India) to identify Indian farmers for interview. The second phase will be a two-month field study in India, travelling from region to region in order to conduct in-depth interviews with innovative farmers - that is, farmers who have registered new plant varieties - in order to learn their views and experiences regarding the different cultures of IP surrounding Indian plant-variety innovation, as well as the related impacts on agricultural biodiversity. The researcher will also speak on local/regional radio in India to publicise the project. In the third phase the researcher will return to Leeds to process the interview data and produce a journal article, one or more articles for trade journals etc., and a report for the Foundation. Throughout the project the researcher will use social media, the Foundation's website and related means to promote the project's findings. The project will end with a conference taking place in Bangalore and involving the project team, farmers, policy-makers and plant breeders. With the UN having recently released a report (http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ditcted2012d3_en.pdf) stressing the importance of small-scale sustainable farming to the future of agriculture and the environment around the world, this research is particularly pertinent, and has relevance for small farmers and agriculture internationally.