Farmers need to register their crop varieties : Partha Sarathi

Hyderabad: Agriculture Secretary C Partha Sarathi advised Agriculture and Horticulture University scientists to encourage farmers to register their crop varieties under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority.

After inaugurating the regional workshop on Farmers’ Rights, jointly organised by Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) and ICAR-ATARI Zone X and Zone XI, he said that there was a need to create awareness among farmers on rights of plant varieties protection.

He mentioned that to achieve this, vigorous awareness campaigns should be organised in villages. He also wanted scientists and the Agriculture Department officials to encourage to get farmers register their intellectual property rights.

Dr B Rajender, Joint Secretary, Seeds, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, said the Central government was giving cash incentives to encourage the participation of the community to register more farmers for crop varieties. “About Rs 10 lakh will be given to the community for propagating the awareness on farmers rights among the farmers in that particular area and Rs 1.5 lakh cash incentive will be given to individual farmer who shows to register more number of crop varieties which he developed in his field,” Rajender said.

He also said Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare had decided to open Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority (PPV & FRA) office in Hyderabad to cater to the needs of the farmers in State.

Dr V Praveen Rao, V-C, PJTSAU, delivered the presidential address and emphasised the need to start a separate knowledge portal on how to register plant varieties and characteristics of varieties, application forms and procedures.