ICAC Releases Report on IP and Role of Private Breeders

By Jim.Robinson|November 27, 2012

The speed at which modern science is advancing often outpaces society’s ability to integrate the new developments into the world’s current ethical and legal framework, and the cotton industry is certainly no exception. There are many areas in which researchers are striving to improve cotton, including producing plants that are more resistant to insects and diseases, as well as plants that can be grown in colder temperatures and require less water to thrive.

But to whom do those advances belong? How are the improvements made available to the broader cotton community? How will the industry deal with advances made by private researchers, as opposed to those made at the governmental level?

Those are some of the topics addressed by the Technical Information Section of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), which organizes a one-day technical seminar on a selected topic at each of its plenary meeting. This year’s seminar, which was chaired by Jens Soth of Helvetas and held in Interlaken, Switzerland, focused on IP and the role private breeders play in cotton.

Six different papers were submitted for 2012:

“Intellectual Property Rights: Need for Overhaul,” by Yusuf Zafar, ICAC Researcher of the Year 2012; director general, Agriculture & Bio Technology Division, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, Pakistan
“Breeding and Seed Production: An Intricate Relationship,” by Ghorban Ali Roshani, director, Cotton Research Institute of Iran, Iran
“Breeders Rights in Egypt,” by Mohamed Abdel Hakeem Ali Naguib, director, Cotton Research Institute, Egypt
“Intellectual Property Rights and the Role of Private Breeders in the Republic of Kazakhstan,” by Ibadullah Umbetaev, Kazakh Scientific Research Institute of Cotton, Kazakhstan
“Cotton Seed Production Systems in West and Central Africa,” by IYA Mohammed, Société de développement du coton (Sodecoton), Cameroon
“Intellectual Property Rights and Role of Private Breeders in Global Cotton Breeding,” by Dr. Anju Gupta, Global Cotton Breeding Pipeline Lead, Monsanto Co., USA

ICAC makes the papers available for download free of charge to interested parties. For more information, and to download the complete papers submitted by each author, please click here.