FARMERS' RIGHTS, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Abstract

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) can play a critical role in protecting the genetic integrity of a variety and generating revenue to support continued breeding work among farmers. Where farmers' rights are appreciated, plants variety can increase, which in turn increases food security in society. These enhanced varieties have positive effects for the economy, ecology, and health of mankind. Only by acknowledging such inventions can the world ensure enhanced plant types that can help with food security, climate change, and poverty alleviation. Protecting the accomplishments of farmers is relevant therefore both to the entrepreneurial interests of the breeder as well as to the general public. Paper examined the concept of farmers' rights and IP concerning the international and local laws on farmers' rights (with special reference to Nigeria Plant Variety Protection Act, 2021). It outlines the provisions of this Act with some of its limitations. This paper argues that the UPOV system is unsuited to Nigeria's small-scale centered agricultural sector and recommended a sui generis system that safeguards the interests of both small-scale farmers and agribusinesses which is most appropriate for Nigeria's small-scale-centered agricultural sector. Paying attention to small-scale farmers and agribusinesses can considerably contribute to Nigeria's economic growth in the face of the erratic nature of global oil prices, which the country is presently dependent on.