Accumulation by dispossession and African seeds: colonial institutions trump seed business law

ABSTRACT

Since 1980, seed business law (patent law vis-à-vis agrobiotechnology, PVP law and seed laws) has been mainstreamed in the global South. Observers maintain that seed business law can lead to dispossession of farmers. I analyse legislation, statistics and case studies (Senegal, Burkina Faso), and argue that in African LDCs, dispossession primarily takes place through capturing seed markets via institutions for direct control over seed distribution. Domestic elites and (global) seed businesses preferably control germplasm via marketing boards, seed subsidies and other former colonial rural institutions. Seed business law, therefore, remains largely disused.

KEYWORDS:

• Intellectual property
• patents on agrobiotechnology
• plant variety protection
• seed laws
• sub-Saharan Africa
• accumulation by dispossession

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their foundational criticism. I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Geertrui Van Overwalle, for her support. I would also like to thank the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich for granting me the PhD scholarship which has allowed me to write this article. I would like to thank all my interviewees in Senegal and Burkina Faso for their trust and openness.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author .

Notes

1 Organisation of African Unity 2000 Model Legislation on the protection of the rights of local communities, farmers and breeders, and for the regulation of access to biological resources.

2 An IP-focused organisation comprising mainly West and Central African francophone countries.

3 An IP-focused organisation comprising mainly East and Southern African anglophone countries.

4 Explanatory notes on exceptions to the breeder’s right under UPOV 1991.

5 GNIS executive, Bruges, 27 March 2020 (online).

6 Former Monsanto executive, Bruges (BE), 24 March 2020 (online) and Brussels (BE), 1 July 2020.

7 Circulaire No. 0810/MAER/DA.

8 Available at docplayer.fr/124249166-Contrat-de-concession-de-la.html.

9 Senegalese negotiator ECOWAS Seed Regulation, Dakar, 28 July 2018; Local seed quality officer, Kolda, 17 August 2018.

10 Visit local farmers’ organisation, Zinguinchor, 30 August 2018.

11 Head SODAGRI, Anambé, 16 August 2018.

12 Local seed quality officer, Kolda, 17 August 2018.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Max Planck Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb (PhD Scholarship).

Notes on contributors

Lodewijk Van Dycke

Lodewijk Van Dycke is currently scholarship holder at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition in Munich, Germany. He is finishing his PhD at the Centre for IT & IP Law at KU Leuven.