Capacity Building Workshop – Plant Variety Protection & Farmers’ Rights, 13-14 May 2025

Capacity Building Workshop on Plant Variety Protection and Farmers’ Rights

Atelier de renforcement des capacitiés sur la protection des obtentions végétales et les droits des Paysans

Organized by African Centre for Biodiversity, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and APBREBES

13-14 May 2025

Lake Victoria Granada Hotel, Entebbe, Uganda

The rapid evolution of national and regional legal frameworks for plant variety protection (PVP) across Africa has created an urgent need to ensure that such frameworks genuinely reflect the continent’s agricultural realities. African agriculture is primarily smallholder-based, with farmer-managed seed systems forming the backbone of food production and biodiversity conservation. Yet, formal PVP regimes, particularly those modeled after the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), often overlook the socio-economic context and traditional practices of African farmers.

As African Union (AU) member states align intellectual property regimes with trade commitments under frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), there is growing pressure to harmonize PVP laws with both regional instruments—like the African Model Law (AML) and the Arusha Protocol—and international obligations, including those under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).

This workshop comes at a critical time to bridge the knowledge and policy gaps, build capacity among national stakeholders, and elevate farmers’ rights as central to PVP legislation. The workshop gathers legal experts, policymakers, civil society actors, farmer representatives, and campaigners to explore African-centered, inclusive approaches to plant variety protection, with the aim of supporting resilient, just, and farmer-friendly seed systems.

Dr. Carlos Correa, the Executive Director of the South Centre, made valuable contributions to this event by delivering two presentations:

Sui Generis Regimes| Régimes sui generis

The History of Plant Variety Protection:| L’histoire de la protection des obtentions végétales