NL: Visit from Myanmar for growers' rights system

Three important policy makers in the field of seeds and plant varieties protection from Myanmar are visiting the Netherlands this week. Meetings were organized with all relevant stakeholders in the seed sector (government, Plant Variety Council, inspection services, companies). This visit gives the civil servants from Myanmar more insight into the practical aspects of an ongoing plant growers' rights system in a country.

Myanmar has a plant growers' right law that was approved in 2016. It came into effect on January 20, 2017. To date, Myanmar is not a member of UPOV 91 (International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties). The country has started the procedure for joining the UPOV convention. At the end of 2017 the UPOV Council took a positive decision on the draft law on the protection of new plant varieties ('Draft law') of Myanmar with the provisions of the law of the UPOV Convention 1991. This allows Myanmar that if the Draft law is adopted unchanged and the law is in force, to deposit its instrument of accession to the 1991 law.

Already a growers' rights station has been established in Yezin. Policy makers must have good knowledge of what it means to have a good and UPOV-based plant growers' rights system in their country. This experience helps the decision makers in Myanmar to implement the plant growers' rights system: what is needed for the implementation of the plant growers' rights system and how the goals on plant growers' rights can be achieved.

Source: Naktuinbouw