Harmonization
of seed regulations will
promote the seed
industry in the
Asia/Pacific region
Editorial
by
Dr. Jagveer S. Sindhu,
Director, The Asia and
Pacific Seed Association
(APSA)
March 2006
The Asia and Pacific region is home to some 55% of the world’s
population, most of whom depend directly or indirectly on
agriculture. About 73% of the world’s farming households are in
this region which, however, has only 32% of the world’s
agricultural land. Of the global seed market of US$30 billion,
Asia/Pacific accounts for only $ 7.5 billion. Farm saved seed
represents for 80-90% of all seed used by farmers.
In 1994, the
Asia and Pacific Seed
Association (APSA) was established in
order to organize the seed industry in this region. APSA has
done an excellent job during its first decade, but a lot more
needs to be accomplished.
Movement of seed across
borders in the region is constrained at times by the existing
regulations, with the result that good seed is not always made
available to the farmers according to their requirements. Such
regulations need to be simplified and harmonized in order to
ensure availability of quality seed to the farmers in the
region. The first priority is to address two such regulations:
Intellectual property
rights issues for seeds are governed mainly through the
Plant Variety Protection (PVP), as biological patents are not
yet applicable in most of the countries in Asia/Pacific. A
review of the PVP situation in the region suggests that whereas
11 countries have joined UPOV (all but China adopted UPOV 91),
10 countries have enacted sui-generis laws, as
provided under Article 27,para 3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement
of the WTO. About six countries are still at the draft stage and
16 have yet to start the process. There is a dire need to
harmonize and enforce PVP in the region. UPOV and APSA have
recently taken some initiatives but these will not be successful
without support of the governments. Growth of the seed industry
and overall agricultural production will largely depend upon
implementation of appropriate PVP laws in different countries.
Regulations on
phytosanitary measures are very important because, under the
International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), quarantine
pests need to be monitored in order to control their spread to
the areas where they are not reported to exist. This requires
regulation of seed imports and exports, since seed is a
potential career of quarantine pests. The WTO Agreement on
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) aims at maintaining
the sovereign right of any country to provide the protection it
deems appropriate, while ensuring that those sovereign rights
are not misused for protectionist purposes and do not result in
unnecessary barriers to international trade.
The SPS Agreement provides
for the use of international standards, guidelines and
recommendations. This also encourages the harmonization of such
regulations at the regional level. APSA took this initiative and
helped the governments of five important agricultural countries
in the region (Vietnam, Thailand, India, Indonesia and the
Philippines) to harmonize these regulations within the framework
of IPPC and as per provisions of the SPS Agreement of WTO. The
outcome of this exercise included the following:
-
Out of 241
quarantine pests
listed for
nine agri-horticultural crop species, only 59 were retained
and 182 were dropped. This will reduce the workload and
increase efficiency of the plant quarantine laboratories.
-
Time
frames for issuance of import /exports permits were
standardized and provision for an appeal was made, which was
previously absent in the existing laws.
-
Phytosanitary accreditation of private sector and NGOs was
accepted and will be implemented soon in the five
participating countries.
The efforts for harmonization
of such regulations should continue and national governments of
the region and IPPC should support such initiatives in other
countries of the Asia/Pacific region.
Dr. Sindhu can be reached at
director@apsaseed.com |