The African Centre for Biodiversity (formerly the African Centre for biosafety) has released a paper discussing the current threats to seed sovereignty that are taking place across the African continent (and throughout the world). According to the website…”The core of the paper is focused on the pressures being exerted on African governments to adopt the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of Plant Varieties (UPOV), particularly through regional harmonisation of plant variety protection (PVP) policies and laws.” The African Centre for Biosafety also states that: “Seeds are the very basis of human society and have been for all of human history. Until very recently, farming and seed breeding were undertaken by farmers on their own land, season after season. However, we are now witnessing the separation of these two interdependent activities, with seed breeding increasingly being privatised and farmers becoming increasingly dependent on seed varieties made available to them at the discretion of seed companies. This process of separation began in Europe and North America at the turn of the nineteenth century, and continues today in developing countries and developed countries alike.”
A PDF-version of the paper may be downloaded below:
