Intellectual Property Rights in Sugarcane Research

Transcription

1 Journal of Intellectual Property Rights Vol 7, September 2002, pp Intellectual Property Rights in Sugarcane Research Meenakshi Prajneshu Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi, Kalkaji, New Delhi and V K Gupta National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies Pusa Gate, Dr K S Krishnan Marg, New Delhi (Received 3 June 2002) The role of intellectual property rights (IPR) in agricultural R&D is becoming significant in view of liberalized economic policies of the Government of India. The paper considers emerging concepts of intellectual property rights in agriculture and presents a case study of patenting in sugarcane research. Based on the analysis, it indicates areas of major concentration of patenting and technology focus. USA and Canada are two major countries whose applicants have obtained a major share of total. While there is an appreciable research base in India in sugarcane, its technological competence does not get reflected in terms of obtained, which may be attributed to the lack of awareness about IPR. It highlights importance of scientists using patent analysis in identifying research priorities and areas of core competence to derive comparative advantages to meet emerging challenges of global economic competition. Historically, IPR have had nothing to do with developments in agriculture. In India and many other developing countries, were never allowed on plantbased inventions because of ethics, provisions of national patent laws and threat posed to peoples basic needs by statutory monopolies in health and food sectors. With developments in hybrid seed industry and, later, the biotechnology-driven life sciences industry, plant breeding became big business and, thus enhanced the prajnesh@iasri.delhi.nic.in; vkgupta@nistads.res.in importance of IPR in agriculture. The economic policies of the Government of India are changing since 1990s. In view of the liberalization in economic policies, role of agricultural R&D has become more and more competitive. IPR are significant in making Indian agriculture more knowledge intensive 1. IPR provide an opportunity to get first-rate seed technology, which in turn may help in enhancing agricultural production. It is, therefore, imperative that proper systems

2 PRAJNESHU AND GUPTA: IPR IN SUGARCANE RESEARCH 417 dealing with IPR are put in place to safeguard interests of inventors as well as of the society. Management of IPR by R&D scientists is an essential component in making the best use of emerging intellectual property regimes and, thereby to contribute in enhancement of agriculture productivity leading to food and nutritional security and economic well being of the society. This paper considers emerging concepts of IPR in agriculture and presents a case study of patenting in the field of sugarcane research. Based on the analysis, it indicates the areas of major concentration of patenting and technology focus. The analysis could be used to identify areas of core competence and comparative advantages in Indian context. Data and Methodology Data for analysis was obtained from INPADOC/ EPIDOS patent database, maintained by the National Informatics Centre, New Delhi. The database contains the filed and granted in more than sixty countries in various fields of technologies. The search in the database was made to obtain the bibliographic details of the and included data from 1968 to 12 June The advanced Boolean search in the title of the using the word `sugarcane' resulted in a list of 261, which were taken for analysis relating to technological innovations in sugarcane. IPR in Agriculture At the international level, a sui generis system was first established in 1961 for protection of new plant varieties. The sui generis system provides protection that is less stringent than provided by. Patents are also granted for innovations related to agricultural technologies. There are a large number of examples where plant-based inventions have been patented across the world. Patenting activity has been observed, for example, in inventions pertaining to the medicinal plants, spices, fruits, vegetables, wood, dyes, and fibre 2. The IPR regime in agriculture has been fast changing in the wake of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) under World Trade Organization (WTO) in The Government of India passed Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmer s Rights Bill on 9 August The bill provides flexibility, better protection of farmers rights and stronger exemptions for researchers to use protected varieties for research purposes. Under researchers right, any person for conducting experiment or research or for the purpose of creating other varieties can use a registered variety. The farmers are entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell their farm produce including seed of a variety protected in the same manner as they were entitled before except that they cannot sell branded seed of such registered variety. Sugarcane R&D in India Sugarcane cultivation in India is pre- Vedic and historical in commercial significance and social context. In addition to India, sugarcane is also a major crop of Egypt and Brazil. In India,

3 418 J INTELLEC PROP RIGHTS, SEPTEMBER 2002 there is a steady increase both in the total production as well as the yield of sugarcane over a period of time 4. The production increased from million tonnes in to million tonnes in (425% increase). During this period, the yield increased from 33,422 kg/hectare to 70,825 kg/hectare (112%). The increase in the production of sugarcane is attributed to a variety of factors like research work on sugarcane genetics and cytogenetics including introduction of improved varieties, interspecific hybrids, newer planting techniques, fertilizer inputs, water application at tillering stage, identification of critical period for weed control, ratoon management, and crop physiology and protection 5. To be competitive, it is essential that results of research are not only protected but best use is made of the technical information contained in patent documents by R&D scientists. Analysis of Data The year-wise distribution of patenting activity in the field of sugarcane research indicated that major innovations were made during 1970s and 1990s (Table 1). In 1980s, the patenting activity diminished. It may not be surprising to note that production of sugarcane in India also showed a similar trend wherein the production grew steadily during 1970s and 1990s. In comparison, 1980s showed rather a slower growth in productivity of sugarcane. The maximum numbers of 79 (30% of the total) were granted by USA Table 1 Year-wise distribution of patenting Year Year (Table 2). This may be due to technological strengths of USA. Some sugarcane producing countries like Brazil, Pakistan, Mexico, Thailand and Columbia granted no while some others like India, China, Australia, and Philippines, have shown considerable patenting activity. Table 3 gives an indication of patenting according to applicant countries. USA and Canada are two major countries whose applicants have obtained 161 (62% of the total). Applicants from USA obtained maximum domestic as well as foreign, while in case of Canada most have been taken in other countries. The major players are those who receive higher number of. The analysis of obtained by applicants from different countries points out that

4 PRAJNESHU AND GUPTA: IPR IN SUGARCANE RESEARCH 419 Table 2 Country-wise distribution of grant of Country/ International organization Initial year of grant Country/ International organization Initial year of grant USA Cuba China Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa Hungary Philippines Israel India Zimbabwe Malaysia Republic of Korea UK International organizations Egypt European Patent Office Japan WIPO Granting country/org Table 3 Applicant country-wise distribution of patenting Domestic Foreign applicants from applicants USA Canada Japan Others (in numbers) Total USA China Australia South Africa Philippines India Malaysia 7 7 UK Egypt 7 7 Japan 6 6 Cuba 5 5 Canada New Zealand 2 2 Hungary Zimbabwe 1 1 Israel 1 1 Republic of Korea 1 1 International organizations EPO WIPO Total

5 420 J INTELLEC PROP RIGHTS, SEPTEMBER 2002 Table 4 Major players in patenting Major player Major player Industry 139 Government 9 Grace W R & Co 31 Council of Scientific & Industrial Research 4 (India) Canadian Cane Equipment 21 Others 5 Hawaiian Sugar Planters 16 Association Academia 16 Monsanto Co 12 Mini Education Superior Univ Las Vilas 5 Hawaiian Dev Co Ltd 10 University of Minnesota 4 Du Pont 6 Others 7 Others 43 Individuals 97 major players in patenting (Table 4) belong to USA and Canada. These two countries play a major role in meeting the global technological requirements of sugarcane industry. Developing countries, like India, Cuba and China have taken in their own countries but have no significant impact in other countries. This may be due to the reason that their innovative strengths may relate to their own needs. In case of India, a closer look at the technological dimensions of patented inventions indicates that patenting has been thinly spread over a period from 1976 to 1991 as well as over the technical areas. Patents were mostly obtained on farm implements deviced for planting and cutting, equipments for processing to get higher sugar recovery from sugarcane and isolation of useful sterols from sugarcane wax. One patent each was taken on preparation of cattle feed from sugarcane bagasse and on process for recovering precipitated calcium carbonate from press mud of sugar factories. While there is an appreciable research base in the country in the field of sugarcane, the technological competence does not get reflected in terms of obtained, which may be attributed to the lack of awareness about IPR or of commercial and market orientation of the research efforts. Technological Focus Table 5 gives the state-of-the-art evaluation of technological developments in sugarcane research as reflected by the patenting activity at international level. Major concentration of is in areas of milling and early ripening of sugarcane. Cultivation, crop protection, harvesting, increase in sugar contents and development of by-products play a significant role in technological and business dynamics of sugarcane research. The patenting in other areas like loading and unloading of canes, growth promoters, flower inhibition, and molasses is minimal though commercially important. The agricultural research in India is manifesting into a competitive phase as a

6 PRAJNESHU AND GUPTA: IPR IN SUGARCANE RESEARCH 421 Table 5 Technology focus of sugarcane research Technology focus Cultivation inclusive of herbicide and weedicide 17 Harvesting 13 Machines for loading and unloading of sugarcanes 5 Processing of canes for sugar extraction (milling) 101 Chemical treatment for early ripening 59 Growth promoters 2 Increasing sugar content (yield) 21 Beverages 12 By-products Bagasse 9 Molasses 1 Others 16 Sugarcane Bacilliform virus promoter and flower inhibition 5 Total 261 result of the global economic competition particularly after India's joining of the World Trade Organization in The research strategy needs to take cognizance of the emerging technological focus in sugarcane research and integrate it into day-to-day R&D management in building core competencies. Conclusions Two major research institutes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, namely, the Sugarcane Breeding Institute (SBI), Coimbatore, and the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research (IISR), Lucknow, are already engaged in frontline areas of basic and strategic research including breeding superior sugarcane varieties/genotypes, genetic improvement of sugarcane, improved production technologies, development of appropriate machinery, management of cane under stress, management of ratoons, development of technology for quality seed production, farming system research, and sugarcane post-harvest technology 6,7. The ninth plan ( ) outlay for sugarcane research under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research was earmarked at Rs crores 8. The sugarcane research has made commendable progress in a variety of dimensions including areas indicated by above analysis on technology focus. The volume of research effort that goes into these areas does not get reflected into patenting activity, which may be primarily due to lack of awareness about IPR. There are other areas like water management, inter-cropping, nematicides and others in which India has core capabilities. The core competence of Indian research efforts is largely meeting local needs of its farmers and industry. In

7 422 J INTELLEC PROP RIGHTS, SEPTEMBER 2002 view of emerging economic competition, research efforts should be properly channelized, research prioritized and core competence developed in the competitive areas indicated by the analysis of. Scientists at R&D institutions should take lead for this purpose and identify research priorities based on the patent analysis. If this is done, there are ample opportunities for India to successfully meet the challenges of growing global economic competition. References 1 Gupta A K, Making Indian agriculture more knowledge intensive and competitive: The case of intellectual property rights, Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 54(3) 1999, Prajneshu M and V K Gupta, Traditional knowledge database: IPR and opportunities for R&D, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, 6, 2001, The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Bill (PPVFR) 2001 (as passed by Lok Sabha) 4 Agricultural Statistics at a Glance (Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi) Misra S R and A K Shrivastava, Sugarcane (Saccharum species) Research in the Post- Independence Era, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 68 (8) 1998, Annual Report ( ), Sugarcane Breeding Institute, Coimbatore. 7 Annual Report ( ), Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow. 8 Standing Committee on Agriculture ( ), Ministry of Agriculture, Demands for Grants ( ), Lok Sabha Secretariat, New Delhi ( /7th.html accessed on ).