Biotech Updates

Govt of India Issues Regulations on Protecting Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights

January 5, 2007

India’s Ministry of Agriculture has issued a new set of regulations aiming to protect plant varieties and farmers' rights. This is part of an effort to expedite the implementation of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001. The new regulations came into force on December 7, 2006, immediately after the notification by the Ministry of Agriculture through an official gazette.

The new regulations stipulated the duties and jurisdiction of the registrar, gave criteria and detailed guidelines for registration of plant varieties and essentially derived varieties, mechanism of seed deposit, and also provided sample authorization and application forms.

For details, visit: http://www.plantauthority.in/PDFile/Indgazette.pdf or contact Bhagirath Choudhary of ISAAA South Asia Center at b.choudhary@isaaa.org.