Farmers worry that patent issue forbids them to store seeds for next planting

GRANTING that golden rice is safe and farmers become willing to plant it, there is a commercial issue that worries them. That is because the creators and proponents, which refers to themselves as a humanitarian organization, have entered into a contract with an international commercial biotechnology corporation.

The intellectual property rights on golden rice, a genetically modified rice engineered to produce the carotenoid beta-carotene, has been released to the public, but the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) says there are unsettled issues involving the patent of seeds.

KMP National Auditor Antonio Flores says in a report in Bulatlat.com that although farmers are allowed to use the seeds, materials and process for free, it is still unclear whether farmers can store seeds for next planting.

“Patents [are] still be owned by the transnational corporation, in which they can alter the agreement regarding royalty any time,” says Flores, adding that the development of golden rice might result in the widespread control of transnational corporations in agriculture by patenting seeds.

Golden rice was invented in 2000 by Dr. Ingo Potrykus of the Institute for Plant Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Dr. Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg in Germany.

However, the original golden rice does not produce enough beta-carotene. To improve golden rice for propagation in countries where vitamin A deficiency is prevalent, Potrykus and Beyer have teamed up with the biotechnology company Syngenta, which has expertise in carotenoids and is involved in many agricultural research programs.

In 2005, Syngenta’s team of researchers produced Golden Rice 2, a variety which has 23 times more beta-carotene than the original golden rice. In the same year, Beyer received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the further improvement of golden rice. Potrykus, on one hand, made an effort to have golden rice distributed to poor farmers for free.

For humanitarian reasons, Syngenta has donated golden rice to the Golden Rice Network (GRN), which is composed of national agriculture research institutes developing golden rice in rice-producing countries like India and Philippines.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) is a member of GRN, and it is collaborating with the International Rice Research Institute and other research institutions belonging to GRN in advancing the development of golden rice.

PhilRice is now developing popular rice varieties in the Philippines to have golden rice traits, pest resistance, and good eating qualities. It also developing a new golden rice variety with resistance rice diseases bacterial blight and tungro. –Claire Mercado, Writer-Researcher, Manila Times