Realising Farmers' Rights to Crop Genetic Resources

Regine Andersen is a Senior Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Lysaker, Norway.  Tone Winge is a Research Fellow at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Lysaker, Norway.

"This book meticulously documents the progress of initiatives undertaken to shape the Farmers' Rights described in the International Treaty, taking the need to provide legal space for Farmers' Rights as the point of departure. With its suggestions for future work, it is a wealth of information for all concerned about and engaged in strengthening farmers' continuing role in maintaining crop diversity." – Bert Visser, Centre for Genetic Resources, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands "This book is indispensable for decision-makers and practitioners dealing with agriculture and food production. It illustrates from the theory to the practice how Farmers' Rights can and need to be implemented in order to ensure the continuous conservation and development of agro-biodiversity in the twenty-first century. As such it is a milestone for the realization of Farmers' Rights." – José Esquinas-Alcázar, Director and Chair of Studies on Hunger and Poverty, University of Córdoba, Spain and Former Secretary of the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture "This is an excellent book for people who are interested in knowing what Farmers’ Rights can actually look like on the ground. By presenting success stories, Andersen and Winge take a positive, proactive approach to analyzing achievements in an area that is still, unfortunately, fraught with challenges, setbacks and relatively slow progress. A wide range of actors involved in Farmer Rights’ advocacy and policy development at local, national and international levels will benefit from the case studies and overall analysis this book provides." – Michael Halewood, Head, Policy Research Unit, Bioversity International, Italy

• Part 1: Introduction 1. Crop Genetic Diversity and Farmers’ Rights 2. What Constitutes a Success Story in the Context of Farmers’ Rights? Part 2: Success Stories from the Realization of Farmers’ Rights to Save, Use, Exchange and Sell Farm-saved Seed 3. Norway’s Path to Ensuring Farmers’ Rights in the European Context 4. Conservation of Local Varieties in the Basque Country in Spite of Legal Restrictions 5. Combining Farmers’ Rights and Plant Variety Protection in the Indian Law Part 3: Success Stories from the Protection of Traditional Knowledge 6 Cataloguing Potato Varieties and Traditional Knowledge from the Andean Highlands of Huancavelica, Peru 7. A Community Registry in the Philippines Part 4: Success Stories from the Realization of Farmers’ Rights to Participate in Benefit Sharing 8. Participatory Barley Breeding in Syria 9. Benefiting from Diversity in Nepal 10. Community Seed Fairs in Zimbabwe 11. Farmer Innovation in Tigray, Ethiopia 12. Capacity Building and Farmer Empowerment in Mali 13. The Hiroshima Agricultural Gene Bank: Re-introducing Local Varieties, Maintaining Traditional Knowledge Part 5: Success Stories from Farmers’ Participation in Decision-making 14. Advocacy for Farmers’ Rights in Nepal Part 6: Ways Forward 15. Future Prospects for the Realization of Farmers’ Rights