Indonesian Seed Saving Curbed

18 May 2008
In Indonesia, small-scale corn farmers are being hauled before courts for exercising their traditional right to produce their own seeds. Some have ended up in jail, some have been fined and some have been prohibited from planting their own seed. Edited by Shelagh Pepper.

In one case, a farmer by the name of Tukirin, along with a number of others farmers, was recruited back in 1994 by his local government to take part in a seed-breeding project with a local Indonesian seed company called PT BISI.
Tukirin was told only that he would be taught how to breed seeds. PT BISI company provided male seeds (their male flowers are used in breeding) that were planted alongside seeds that Tukirin bought from his regular supplier. No formal legal agreement was signed but the understanding was that the company would buy back the resulting new seeds for marketing under its own label.
The project lasted about four years. Corn farmers in Indonesia make little if any profit and spend a lot on seed. So Tukirin decided to use his new knowledge to breed seeds on his own. Again he bought seeds from a shop and using improvised methods produced enough new seeds that he could sell some to neighbours for less than the going rate. The seeds were not the same quality as the ones from PT BISI, but they were adequate.
Shortly afterwards Tukirin found himself in court on a number of charges brought by PT BISI, who had secured the cooperation of police and the agriculture department to obtain the evidence against Tukirin. Essentially PT BISI’s case revolved around seed certification and who has the right to certificate.
Tukirin did not understand the charges, which appear in any case to be irrelevant, as Tukirin did not certify his seeds, and he was not represented in court. Nonetheless he received a sentence of six months imprisonment, which was later suspended, and a prohibition on planting his own corn seeds for one year.
Three other corn farmers in the district were also prosecuted, two farmers receiving similar suspended sentences. One was imprisoned for one month and all were prohibited from planting and breeding corn. There have been similar court cases in neighbouring districts and NGOs report others where there is reluctance from farmers to come forward and tell their stories.
A common feature of the stories is that none of the farmers were aware of laws to protect commercial breeders’ rights that stem in part from Indonesia’s ratification of the WTO TRIPS agreement. Indeed there is evidence that officials with local agricultural services themselves do not know these laws and their implications for traditional breeders of seed.
The greater concern is that under these laws only certain bodies may certify seeds and only certified seeds may be sold. This effectively excludes peasant farmers in Indonesia from their own traditions of farming or from developing their own innovations. Their livelihood and personal security is threatened by enforced dependence on multinational and national seed companies.
http://asianfarmers.org/?p=210