Researchers
at Ghana’s Crops Research Institute (CRI) have over the years developed and
released over 100 improved crop varieties and production technologies for adoption
by farmers and other end-users.
The
food and industrial crops cover cereals (maize and rice); legumes and oil seeds
(cowpea, soybean and groundnut); roots and tubers (cassava, sweet potato, yam
and cocoyam).
Other
Institutes under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and
the general Ghanaian scientific community have also developed diverse genetic
materials and technologies.
The
scientists are however seeking a strong legal framework to protect their intellectual
property.
“Before
we develop any technology, we invest so much intellectual resources, but at the
moment nobody looks at that aspect”, says Dr. Stephen Amoah, research scientist
in breeding and molecular biology.
According
to him, researchers need to be protected against the physical multiplication of
genetic plants without recourse to “the person who sat down to do the crosses,
the biology and the genetics”.
Most
biological materials developed in Ghana presently do not fit appropriately under
the existing intellectual property rights – including the Patents, Trade Marks,
Designs and Copyright.
Ghana’s
parliament is presenting considering a bill on Plant Breeders Rights, which
will allow commercial end-users of research products to pay royalties to the
scientists and their institutions.
The
Act will grant ownership and protection to plant breeders who have developed
varieties and for related matter.
Director
of the Crop Research Institute, Dr. Hans Adu-Dapaah says “hitherto the
materials we’ve been releasing are just for free; Obaatanpa [maize variety],
for instance, has been cultivated in about 18 countries and we never took any
money from them because there is no law”.
He
is confident the bill will be passed this year “to enable us to obtain royalty
from every material. So we’ll sign MoUs with some of these seed companies and
that will bring in money to enable research become sustainable”, Dr. Adu-Dapaah
noted.
The
researchers expect government will put in place structures to support
implementation of the bill when passed.
“It’s a way of motivating the scientists and
creating competition among the institutions and also the scientists and that is
one way of improving the quality of research”, stated Dr. Amoah.
The
PBR allows the breeder to choose to become the exclusive marketer of the
variety, or to license the variety to others.
Story
by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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