Rice as a strategic weapon for profit

Companies and industrial countries want to win monopoly rights over Asia’s biodiversity and indigenous knowledge. They are using legislation known as Intellectual Property Rights, which enables the patenting of life forms.

Rice is the most important grain.
Rice goes back thousands of years in Asia’s agricultural history. Today, rice accounts for 80% of Asia's daily calorie intake and therefore is the key to food security.

In India alone there are an estimated 200,000 varieties of rice. The diversity of rice in India is one of the richest in the world. They have a wide range of different purposes, some grow well during droughts, others can withstand certain pests. Some have long and slender grains, others are slow cooking or medicinal.

The story of Basmati
Basmati rice is distinct for its unique aroma and flavour. Basmati translates "queen of aroma". There is reference to Basmati in ancient texts, folklore and poetry, as it has been grown for centuries. There are twenty-seven distinct documented varieties of Basmati grown in India.

In 1997 RiceTec, a transnational corporation got patent rights on Basmati rice and grains, through the US Patent and Trademark Office. This allows RiceTec Inc, an American subsidiary to sell a ‘new’ variety of Basmati, in the US and abroad. This ‘new’ variety of Basmati has been derived from farmer’s varieties. Indian Basmati crossed with semi-drawf varieties. Rice Tec are falsely claiming a ‘derivation’ as an invention or a novelty.

The patent extends to "functionally equivalents", implying that other people selling Basmati rice could be restricted by the patent. Rice Tec could have sole right to use the term ‘Basmati’ for marketing the rice anywhere in the world.

Farmers livelihoods, and heritage threatened

If this patent is enforced internationally under World Trade Organisation rules it could seriously affect the livelihoods of many Indian and Pakistani farmers who grow and trade rice. Farmers could find themselves paying royalties on varieties their communities have played a hand in breeding over centuries.

The wealth of farmer's rice varieties and put seeds into the ‘gene’ bank, IRRI. This is one of the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARC) under the Consultative group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). These centers facilitate biopircay, as they are funded by 'donor' countries who give 'foreign aid' investment for research. These countries (US, Canada, GB, and Austrailia) receive billions of dollars in annual return from crops obtained through IARCs.

There is an agreement between the United Nations, Food and Agricultural Organisation and CGIAR stating seeds from this IRRI ‘gene’ bank should not be patentable, but once a scientist has done breeding work, material can be patented.

Now IRRI are promoting the gene revolution. They are developing a new "Super Rice" which will apparently be highly productive, producing it’s own herbicide through genetic engineering techniques.

Farmers need to become breeders again

IRRI need to be challenged so they stop replacing locally generated, indigenous techniques and expertise with unsustainable technologies. More plant breeding projects need to be established like MASIPAG, farmer-scientist participation programs which recover and preserve varieties of rice that have lost diversity over the last decades. The idea is to enable farmers to gain control of their seeds.

It is important that ownership of plant varieties and knowledge be rejected. Such resources should remain accessible to all people who require seeds or knowledge for agriculture. They are not commodities to be exploited by the corporate sector. Patenting life forms or knowledge is not acceptable. It is theft from generations past, present and future.