IPR for Food Security in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The ability of a country to produce enough food to feed its population is directly related to its agricultural resources, trade relationships, and economic partnership. The present study focuses on the role of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in food security and how they are helpful to protect the traditional and farmer rights. However, it can also have some negative impacts on food sovereignty, such as giving companies monopoly control over the essential agricultural inputs and preventing the sharing of information and knowledge. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have encouraged the developing and under-developed countries to introduce IPRs into their agricultural sectors by highlighting the economic benefits. The use of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in agriculture has both positive and negative effects on food security in developing and least developed countries. The paper discusses Whether evolving and emerging the IPR will protect the farmer’s rights especially in developing countries where the farmers are smallscale, IPR needs to be carefully designed to ensure that they do not disadvantage these farmers. The paper also looks at how IPRs affect private investment in developing new crop varieties.