Agricultural Updates: Plant Genome Savior Community Award for 2012-13

Plant Genome Savior Community Award (2012-13), Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Rewards 2013 and Plant Genome Saviour Farmers’ Recognition 2013 function organized by the PPV&FR Authority, New Delhi on Wednesday 24th August, 2016 at 15:00 hrs onwards at A.P. Shinde Symposium Hall, NASC Complex, DPS Marg, New Delhi.

The awards will be distributed by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri. Radha Mohan Singh to the awardees and also he will be the Chief Guest of that programme. The Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri S.S. Ahluwalia, the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Panchayati Raj Shri Parshottam Rupala and the Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Shri Sudarshan Bhagat, would also grace the occasion.

For the protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new plant varieties, India enacted the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act in 2001. The Act is the first of its kind in granting intellectual property rights not only to the plant breeders but also to the farmers by protecting new, extant and farmers’ varieties.

In November, 2005 as per provision under the Act, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority was established in New Delhi. The Authority has made landmark achievement in last ten years. Registration of plant varieties was started by the Authority with twelve crop species in 2007 and now 114 crop species are covered under the umbrella of PPV&FRA for granting IPR.

Nearly, 78 distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) test centers have been established in State Agriculture Universities (SAU), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Centre of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) & other reputed research institutes. Half of the 12351 applications received so far for registration are of farmers varieties.

A total of 2290 certificates of registration have been granted, out of which 1441 certificates were granted in last two and half years. With respect to registration of farmers’ varieties, a total of 852 certificates have been issued out of which 800 certificates were issued during last two and half years.

For conserving genes of perennial crops, National Gene Bank for conserving seeds of registered varieties and field gene banks have been established at SAUs. For awareness and capacity building of different stakeholders, The Authority has organised 1278 programs and for effective communication with farmers of States, they has published literature in vernacular language.

Source:http://pib.nic.in/