Amid signs of extreme disappointment over the central government's move to allegedly water down intellectual property (IP) rights over biotech traits, 10 leading seed companies - mostly Indian subsidiaries of multinational corporations - on Friday launched a new association to advocate their cause.
Announcing the formation of "Federation of Seed Industry of India (FSII)" in Delhi on Friday, the founding members said that the new body will represent companies committed to Indian agriculture, and R&D that benefits Indian farmers.
The members include Monsanto, Mahyco, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Agro, Dupont Poineer, Metahelix, Namdhari, Rasi seeds and Shriram Bioseeds.
The key purpose and commitments of the FSII include providing a platform that will bring together like-minded seed companies who are committed to the seed business, IP creation, IP protection and working for the welfare of Indian farmers, the founding members stated. |
FSII has already given its views on the draft notification on the "licensing and formats for GM technology agreement" put out by the agriculture ministry recently. While the new body finds the draft agreement norms one-sided and against their interest, several domestic seed companies find it acceptable.
"It is important to ensure both food and nutritional security for the country's growing population. Seed is one of the key inputs that can deliver innovative solutions to address the agricultural challenges we have. This new Association is committed to increase efforts in research and innovation in Seed - which in turn, would help our farmers and Indian Agriculture " Ramasami , Chairman and Managing Director of Rasi Seeds, a founding member of FSII said.
Ramasami also explained that the new association is driven by the fundamental value of respecting research and intellectual properties of each other. "The Association believes that no single company has all the solutions and hence collaborations, joint ventures, licensing arrangements and similar approaches are necessary among the members of the industry. Such collaborative working is possible only based on fair dealings, mutual trust, respect for the law and honoring of contractual obligations. FSII is committed to foster such values amongst its members.
"
No comments:
Post a Comment