24th April 2019: Leading farmer unions, farmers\u2019 rights advocacy groups and
\neminent citizens of Gujarat demanded that PepsiCo immediately withdraw all the legal suits it has slapped on many potato farmers in different districts of Gujarat. The Indian subsidiary of the US MNC,
\nnamely PepsiCo India Holdings (PIH) Pvt Ltd has filed cases of IPR infringement through 2018-2019 against farmers whom it claims are using its potato variety FL 2027\/FC5 without permission.
\nAddressing a press conference in Ahmedabad today, they demanded that the Government of India and the State Government of Gujarat step in immediately to protect farmers\u2019 rights as already
\nenshrined in relevant laws of the country, particularly the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers\u2019 Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001.
\n\u201cThe claims of PepsiCo India that it holds exclusive rights on a potato variety called FL-2027 by virtue
\nof its plant variety certificate (PVC) under the PPV&FR Act 2001 is completely untenable. The company
\nis clearly intimidating farmers to wipe out any competition in its potato and chips market. We strongly\u00a0 condemn the objectionable ways in which the MNC used private detective agencies to entrap farmers, to create secret video footage and take unauthorised samples from the farmers, to slap these legal suits against farmers. We demand that the company immediately and unconditionally withdraw all the cases that it initiated in various courts against farmers\u201d, said Ambubhai Patel, National Vice President, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS).
\nBadribhai Joshi of Gujarat Khedut Samaj said, \u201cFrom information gathered so far, at least nine cases
\nhave been filed by PepsiCo India against potato farmers of Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Arvalli
\ndistricts, and some of these cases date back to 2018; news of ex-parte ad-interim injunction orders being passed by a commercial court against the farmers has emerged only recently. These are
\namongst the first cases of alleged IPR infringement against farmers in India in a post-WTO world.
\nWrongly decided, these could set a wrong precedent impacting farmers livelihoods quite adversely\u201d.
\nKapilbhai Shah of Jatan, Vadodara added, \u201cIndia had designed a sui generis law in compliance with the WTO\u2019s TRIPS Agreement (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), which is the PPV&FR Act, 2001. Under this statute, farmers\u2019 apriori rights with regard to seeds and planting material have been clearly protected under Section 39. Therefore, we want the Government of India and Government of Gujarat to step in and ensure that farmers\u2019 rights are upheld in these cases and elsewhere. Eminent citizens and hundreds of organisations across India have already begun writing to
\nthe concerned authorities and we demand immediate intervention from these authorities\/ departments.\u201d
\nPepsiCo India claims that the registration of a potato variety denominated as FL-2027, also known by the trade name of FC-5 in India\u2019s Plant Varieties Registry in February 2016, entitles it to an exclusive
\nright over the registered variety, and is making a case that the sued Gujarat farmers have not been authorised by it to grow the said variety. However, Section 39(1) (iv) of the PPV&FR Act 2001 in
\nChapter VI on Farmers\u2019 Rights, clearly asserts that \u201cNotwithstanding anything contained in this Act,
\n(iv) a farmer shall be deemed to be entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell his
\nfarm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act in the same manner as he was
\nentitled before the coming into the force of this Act, provided that the farmer shall not be entitled to
\nsell branded seed of a variety protected under this Act.\u201d
\n\u201cEven as we demand that Pepsico withdraw its false cases, and that the government intervene to
\nprotect farmers\u2019 rights, we also seekc that any judicial interpretation should not water down the
\nlegislative intent of the PPV&FR Act in any manner\u201d, said Sagar Rabari, President of Khedut Ekta
\nManch.
\nDr Rajendrabhai Khimani, President of Gujarat Association of Agricultural Sciences said, \u201cIt is
\nimportant that the law be amended to protect farmers\u2019 rights in a stronger fashion by clearly adding a
\nprovision that bars any company from getting registrations under the PPV&FR Act if found harassing
\nfarmers in this manner. As a penalty on PepsiCo India for vexatious suits like this against farmers,
\nregistration of all varieties of PIH should stand cancelled. Government must also issue minimum half
\npage educational advertisements in all regional language papers highlighting the key features of the
\nAct and that it will uphold farmers\u2019 rights. That will then prevent any other corporations claiming Plant
\nBreeders Rights from taking such action against hapless farmers\u201d.
\n\u201cIt is a clear case of harassment and intimidation of farmers, in violation of farmers\u2019 rights under
\nsection 39 of the PPV&FR Act. Need to underline who is really infringing upon whose right\u201d, said Vinay
\nMahajan of Loknaad.
\nMeanwhile, hundreds of eminent citizens, activists, farmer unions and other organisations have sent a
\nletter to the Chairperson and Registrar General of India\u2019s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers\u2019
\nRights Authority under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers\u2019 Welfare, with copies to the Union
\nAgriculture Minister Shri Radhamohan Singh, Union Minister of State for Agriculture Shri Purushotham
\nRupala, Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Vijay Rupani and Agriculture Minister of Gujarat Shri RC Faldu,
\ndemanding immediate intervention from their side, with the following demands:
\n1. Put out a public statement, which should also be made a submission to the Commercial Court and
\nHigh Court in Ahmedabad where the farmers are being sued, explaining the farmers\u2019 rights as
\nenshrined in the PPV&FR Act, 2001;
\n2. Write to PepsiCo India Holdings, asking it to withdraw its false and untenable cases against the
\nfarmers;
\n3. Provide from the National Gene Fund the costs of legal suits that the farmers are having to face,
\nuntil the time that the cases are withdrawn by PepsiCo India;
\n4. Mention on all Certificates of Registration, in the same manner as Section 47 (on compulsory
\nlicensing) is mentioned, Section 39 and other relevant sections too.
\n5. Issue a notification that no company can trespass into a farmer\u2019s field without due intimation of
\nthe local district agriculture office and the farmer\u2019s prior informed consent.
\n(Ambubhai Patel) (Badribhai Joshi) (Kapil Shah)
\nBharatiya Kisan Sangh Gujarat Khedut Samaj Jatan
\n(Sagar Rabari) (Vinay Mahajan) (Dr. Rajendra Khimani)
\nKhedut Ekta Manch Loknaad Guj. Association of Agri. Science<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
24th April 2019: Leading farmer unions, farmers\u2019 rights advocacy groups and eminent citizens of Gujarat demanded that PepsiCo immediately withdraw all the legal suits it has slapped on many potato farmers in different districts of Gujarat. The Indian subsidiary of the US MNC, namely PepsiCo India Holdings (PIH) Pvt Ltd has filed cases of IPR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3,7,24],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUKPQ-3jt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12740,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12739\/revisions\/12740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allgujaratnews.in\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}