Agriculture and Forestry

For businesses to benefit from plant varieties.

The creation of new, improved crop varieties is an important and sustainable way to achieve food security in the face of population growth and climate change.

New varieties adapted to the environment in which we were built enhance healthy, tasty, and complementary food choices while generating viable income for farmers. New varieties also help develop urban agriculture and grow ornamental trees, shrubs, and trees that improve people's lives in an ever-expanding urban environment.

Successful plant breeding requires a great deal of skill and knowledge in a process that can take up to 15 years to bring an identical crop to market. Not all newly planted seedlings are successful, even when the best-promising seedlings are selected from individual evaluation goods during the cross-breeding process. Efforts to create long-lasting and durable varieties are only worthwhile if there is an opportunity to be rewarded for the investment, which is why plant variety protection (PVP) is such an important system for growers. select plant varieties.

Five ways the UPOV system is suitable for small and medium businesses

The  UPOV  system was created specifically to address the specific needs of plant breeders and is well-suited to small and medium enterprises.

1. Entering the field of breeding

“Breeder validity” plays an important role for SMEs, by allowing breeders to use protected varieties for further breeding, reducing “barriers to entry”. ” for small and medium enterprises who want to participate in the seed business.

2. A simple and harmonious management system

UPOV has developed application forms, which means that the information requested in PVP applications is very similar across all UPOV members. The UPOV PRISMA Online Application Tool helps SMEs to apply to the PVP Agency of UPOV member countries. Special advantages for SMEs include the ability to find all PVP Agency procedures in one place, and the ability to read application forms in their chosen language and translate predefined responses into that language.

3. Cost-effective like a rating system

UPOV has achieved a high level of harmonization when examining PVP applications. This facilitates cooperation and reduces the time and cost of the applicant. For example, as soon as a UPOV member has considered how important, the results of this test can be used by another member's agency.

4. Same production rights transfer opportunity

Possibly PVP means that plant breeders can develop a seed transfer strategy to produce and market their varieties, nationally and internationally.

5. Association

PVP also allows plant breeders to develop partnerships to achieve common goals. For example, a seed house may have the knowledge and expertise to research but may not have the necessary infrastructure or experience to successfully produce and market the seed. In this regard, farmer and grower associations, seed producers and/or processors, for example in the milling industry, can join ranks to financially support a program. breeding process and allowing for the subsequent replication and follow-up of the varieties that have been created. Ownership can be shared in different ways according to each partner's contribution.

More about UPOV

The effectiveness of the UPOV system on plant variety conservation has resulted in great diversity in plant breeding, both in species for which plant breeders have sought to protect new plant varieties (more than 4,000). ) ) and all about plant breeders. The majority of plant breeders using PVP are small and medium enterprises including individuals, farmers, researchers, public institutes, and private companies.