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Thursday March 28, 2024

Power struggle makes seeds industry’s development distant dream

By Munawar Hasan
May 11, 2016

LAHORE: Two government departments have locked horns over which one should regulate the research and development of new plant varieties in Pakistan, virtually nipping in the bud the local industry in the agriculture economy.   

Informed sources told The News on Tuesday that there has been a tug of war going on between the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFS&R) and the Intellectual Property Organisation (IPO) for the last several months over the mandate of running the office to register seeds under the draft Plant Breeders Rights Bill.

The ongoing tussle could invite intervention from the Prime Minister office.

The sources said both the government entities are indulged in a wrangling to get the mandate of establishing the registry, creating an impasse on long overdue legislation. 

For almost last 15 years, the said bill could not go through the legislation process due to one reason or another, which virtually blocks the entry of seed research and development companies into the market.

The IPO, in a statement, said the bill has been submitted to the parliament for enactment. “Soon after its enactment, the registry will be set up under administrative control of IPO-Pakistan on modern and competitive lines to provide an effective intellectual property rights (IPR) system,” it added. 

The department said the proposed registry will be set up for granting protection to the development of new plant varieties and establish a viable seed industry for the improvement of agriculture sector and to ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting materials to the farmers.

Minister Sikandar Hayat Bosan of NFS&R, however, said the registry should be set up under its administrative control as all the issues of plant breeders are related to the ministry.

Bosan told this scribe that a summary was moved to the Prime Minister Secretariat for getting the mandate of setting up the registry from the IPO. The summary was forwarded following a decision taken in the meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet on the issue. 

The food minister dispelled the impression that his ministry was insisting on getting the mandate. “In fact, a former official advised in the meeting that the registry should be set up under the ministry of NFS&R instead of the IPO,” he said. “The ex-official said as the IPO office will always seek guidance from the ministry on IPR applications it will be prudent to give the mandate of registering IPR under the ministry.”

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, which met on 20 April, directed the ministry to move a summary to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to get the mandate of the registry from the IPO within three days of the meeting and report to the committee. 

Lawmaker Rana Muhammad Hayat Khan, who chaired the standing committee meeting, said numerous thorny issues have been settled despite delay in finalising the draft of the bill. “We hope that the decision on the mandate will soon be resolved and the draft bill will be cleared for approval after a long delay since 2002,” Khan said.