ICAR moves to curb theft of Indian germplasm

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New Delhi, Feb 3: The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is set to mobilise forces, to prevent the further theft of Indian germplasm. It noted cases of such thefts; called biopiracy, like varieties of Indian chickpeas grown in Australia or some form of Indian wheat landrace; Nap Hal, which was accorded patent rights.

The ICAR in an official document has noted, “There are many examples of elite Indian germplasm without any national identity number being sent out to other countries, where it was released and commercialised without any benefit to the country. Some chickpeas varieties released in Australia are of Indian origin. Nap Hal wheat transferred to the US many years ago was exploited for developing other varieties, for which applications for patent rights were filed. India had to file an opposition to the grant of the patent.”

In this context, ICAR suggested, “the use of national identity from a centralised database at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) for each germplasm accession should be mandatory, and it should be used in all publications and future correspondence to avoid naming the same accession with different identities. This creates prior art as required by international law and helps to stake claim of national sovereignty and benefit sharing.”