Seeds of success: The importance of seed security for cotton farmers

This report summarises many of the barriers farmers face in accessing good quality, appropriate and affordable cotton seeds. It looks particularly at the increase in genetically modified Bt cotton in India, showing that high levels of legal protection for seed companies, together with an overreliance of cotton farmers on one type of seed has led to high costs for farmers while benefiting corporations.

Recommendations: European Union:

• Should withdraw its demand that developing countries accede to UPOV ’91 as part of FTA negotiations;

• Should work with partners to assess how higher levels of IPR protection will impact small farmers.

Donors and cotton producing country governments should:

• Invest in farmer-led research into low cost seeds that require low cost inputs;

• Produce and provide more appropriate and non-Bt seeds;

• Support regional collaboration around seed research and development;

• Support diversification strategies to reduce farmers’ reliance on cotton, support food security and upstream development activities to add value to cotton;

• Monitor and tackle the impacts of increasing levels of corporate concentration in particular sectors and intervene to ensure affordable seed prices;

• Ensure IPR protection does not undermine traditional seed varieties and the save and re-use schemes that are so important to small farmers


You can read the full report here