Tanzanian farmers are facing heavy prison sentences if they continue their traditional seed exchange!
In
order to receive development assistance, Tanzania has to give Western
agribusiness full freedom and give enclosed protection for patented
seeds. “Eighty percent of the seeds are being shared and sold in an
informal system between neighbors, friends and family. The new law
criminalizes the practice in Tanzania,” says Michael Farrelly of
TOAM, an organic farming movement in Tanzania.
Brutal
corporate onslaught against third world - Part 4 - Removal of trade
barriers
An
additional problem is that the seeds of foreign companies are not
always adapted to the local climate. “What works in Utrecht
doesn’t necessarily work in Zanzibar,” says Michael Farrelly.
Tanzania alone has five different climate zones. “Even the
region of Morogoro has different climate zones,” says Janet
Maro.
Yet soon it
will be easier for seeds from different regions to enter the country,
and other African countries are on the way to follow Tanzania’s
example. In 2015, eighteen African countries signed the Arusha
Protocol for the protection of new plant varieties.
The purpose
is that all countries would try to work on eliminating the trade
barriers and incorporate intellectual property rights on seeds in
their legislation, in order to achieve a harmonized regional system.
Among others, the Community Plant Variety Office, an EU agency for
the protection of plant varieties as intellectual property,
invariably takes part in all meetings related to the Protocol.
Syngenta
believes that these measures will help advance Africa: “We are
pleased that it is finally going in the right direction after years
of negotiations,” says Kinyua M’Mbijjewe. “The EU has a
harmonized policy regarding the seeds that are allowed to be brought
into another country. In Africa this doesn’t exist. You could not
bring seeds from Kenya over the border to Tanzania, an area with the
same climate zone. Africa’s trade barriers have not pushed forward
the farmers and the economy.”
Source:
Big corporations are grabbing huge
cultivable areas especially in the developing countries in order
to control food production.
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