Comprehension

Directions for Questions: Read the passage carefully and answer the given questions accordingly.

The current debate on intellectual property rights (IPRs) raises a number of important issues concerning the strategy and politics for building a more dynamic national agricultural research system, the relative roles of public and private sectors, and the role of agribusiness multinational corporations(MNCs). This debate has been stimulated by the international agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPs), negotiated as part of the Uruguay Round. TRIPs for the first time seeks to bring innovations in agricultural technology under a new worldwide IPR regime. The agribusiness MNCs (along with pharmaceutical companies) played a leading part in lobbying for such a regime during the Uruguay Round negotiations. The argument was that incentives are necessary to stimulate innovations and that this calls for a system of patents that gives innovators the sole right to use (or sell/lease the right to use) their innovations for a specified period and protects them against unauthorized copying or use. With the strong support of their national governments, they were influential in shaping the agreement on TRIPs which eventually emerged from the Uruguay Round.

The current debate on TRIPs in India-as indeed elsewhere-echoes wider concerns about ‘privatization’ of research and allowing a free field for MNCs in the sphere of biotechnology and agriculture. The agribusiness corporations, and those with unbounded faith in the power of science to overcome all likely problems, point to the vast potential that new technology holds for solving the problems of hunger, malnutrition, and poverty in the world. The exploitation of this potential should be encouraged and this is best done by the private sector for which patents are essential. Some, who do not necessarily accept this optimism argue, that fears of MNC domination are exaggerated and that farmers will accept their products only if they decisively outperform the available alternatives. Those who argue against agreeing to introduce an IPR regime in agriculture and encouraging private-sector research are apprehensive that this will work to the disadvantage of farmers by making them more dependent on monopolistic MNCs. A different, though related apprehension is that extensive use of hybrids and genetically engineered new varieties might increase the vulnerability of agriculture to outbreaks of pests and diseases. The larger, longer-term consequences of reduced biodiversity that may follow from the use of specially bred varieties are also another cause for concern. Moreover, corporations, driven by the profit motive, will necessarily tend to underplay, if not ignore, potential adverse consequences, especially those which are unknown and which may manifest themselves only over a relatively long period. On the other hand, high-pressure advertising and aggressive sales campaigns by private companies can seduce farmers into accepting varieties without being aware of potential adverse effects and the possibility of disastrous consequences for their livelihood if these varieties happen to fail. There is no provision under the laws, as they now exist, for compensating users against such eventualities.

Excessive preoccupation with seeds and seed material has obscured other important issues involved in reviewing the research policy. We need to remind ourselves that improved varieties by themselves are not sufficient for sustained growth of yields. In our own experience, some of the early high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of rice and wheat were found susceptible to widespread post attacks; and some had problems of grain quality. Further research was necessary to solve these problems. This largely successful research was almost entirely done in public research institutions. Of course, it could in principle have been done by private companies, but whether they choose to do so depends crucially on the extent of the loss in market for their original introductions on account of the above factors and whether the companies are financially strong enough to absorb the ‘losses’, invest in research to correct the deficiencies and recover the lost market. Public research, which is not driven by profit, is better placed to take corrective action. Research for improving common poll resource management, maintaining ecological health, and ensuring sustainability is both critical and also demanding in terms of technical challenge and resource requirements. As such research is crucial to the impact of new varieties, chemicals, and equipment in the farmer’s field, private companies should be interested in such research. But their primary interest is in the sale of seed materials, chemicals, equipment, and other inputs produced by them. Knowledge and techniques --- can only do such work.

The public sector must therefore continue to play a major role in the national research system. It is both wrong and misleading to pose the problem in terms of public sector versus private sector or of privatization of research. We need to address problems likely to arise on account of the public-private sector complementarily and ensure that the public research system performs efficiently. Complementarily between various elements of research raises several issues in implementing an IPR regime. Private companies do not produce new varieties and inputs entirely as a result of their own research. Almost all technological improvement is based on knowledge and experience accumulated from the past, and the results of basic and applied research in public and quasi-public institutions (universities, research organizations). Moreover, as is increasingly recognized, accumulated stock of knowledge does not reside only in the scientific community and its academic publications but is also widely diffused in traditions and folk knowledge of local communities all over.

The deciphering of the structure and functioning of DNA forms the basis of much of modern biotechnology. But this fundamental breakthrough is ‘public good’, freely accessible in the public domain and usable free of any charge. Varieties/techniques developed using that knowledge can however be, and are, patented for private profit. Similarly, private corporations draw extensively, and without any charge, on germplasm available in varieties of plant species (neem and turmeric are now famous examples). Publicly funded gene banks as well as new varieties bred by public sector research stations can also be used freely by private enterprises for developing their own varieties and seek patent protecting them. Should private breeders be allowed free use of basic scientific discoveries? Should the repositories of traditional knowledge and germplasm be collected which are maintained and improved by publicly funded institutions? Or should users be made to pay for such use? If they are to pay, what should be the basis of compensation? Should the compensations be for individuals or for communities/institutions to which they belong? Should individuals/institutions be given the right of patenting their innovations? These are some of the important issues that deserve more attention than they now get and need a serious detailed study to evolve reasonably satisfactory, fair, and workable solutions. Finally, the tendency to equate the public sector with the government is wrong. The public space is much wider than government departments and includes co-operatives, universities, public trusts, and a variety of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Giving greater autonomy to research organizations from government control and giving non-government public institutions space and resources to play a larger, more effective role in research, is therefore an issue of direct relevance in restructuring the public research system.

CAT/2000

Question . 119

Public or quasi-public research institutions are more likely than private companies, to address the negative consequences of new technologies, because of which of the following reasons?