Role of Trips in Indian Agriculture Sector - Balancing Traditional Knowledge and Biotechnology

Abstract

Historically, the onset of green revolution led to the introduction of high-yielding varieties (HYV) seeds that rewrote the growth story of Indian agriculture. Gradually the side effects of intensive farming were realized. Nevertheless, the initial success led to introduction of Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt.) cotton in India. Since then various divergent voices are raised to protect traditional seed holding rights of the farmers, which, has led to a policy paralysis ultimately contributing to the current stalemate in embracing Genetically Modified (GM) crops. The paper finds that the heightened scrutiny due to those fears has brought new evidence about non-viability of such crops for Indian conditions. The agriculture sector has overcome this technological stalemate and is silently evolving to embrace its vast cultural knowledge and biodiversity among with non-GM technology. The paper is a pivot on the role of trade related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and its impact on agricultural innovation lead by traditional knowledge (TK) and biotechnology. The data extracted .from RBl FAO and UNCOMTRADE WITS suggests that the share of primary products in the total exports is on decline. Similarly, the yield of Bt. cotton has become stagnant after an initial increase till 2004.After ,critically analyzing the reasons for current decline, the study suggests a relook at innovation by increasing the research and development (R&D) expenditure in TK and biotechnology by both public and private stakeholders.