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The
Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) requires the WTO member countries
to remove subsidies reduce tariffs, and allow minimum market access
on agricultural products. This would worsen the competition between
the imported and local crops which is killing the local farmers.
On the other hand, Trade-related Aspect of Intellectual Property
Rights (TRIPs) allows the patenting of genetic resources such
as plant seeds.
"Nobody
has the right to own the seeds. Even we, the farmers recognize
that seeds should be shared, not privatized," said Mario
Denito, a farmer-leader from MASIPAG in the Philippines. "Farming
communities flourished and survived for thousands of years because
of the sharing and improvement of resources and knowledge."
"Seeds
are the life of the farmers. Farmers have the right to these resources
because it our culture and part of the heritage which has been
passed on from generations," said Erpan Faryadi, secretary-general
of AGRA in Indonesia.
Mario,
Erpan and other farmers shared their experiences and the impact
of seeds patenting in the Asian Workshop on TRIPs: Defending Farmers'
Rights against Patents on Life. According to a unity statement
crafted by the participants, "intellectual property rights
drive us further into debt and poverty because we lose control
over seeds, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge."
"Patenting
of seeds will essentially place monopolistic control and ownership
on the hands of the multinational companies and trample on the
inherent rights of the farmers on these seeds," said Danilo
Ramos, secretary-general of the Asian Peasant Coalition. "TRIPs
do not ensure the food security of the farmers and their families
but only aims for huge profits for the transnational corporations.
WTO must therefore be taken out of agriculture!"
The
Ministerial Meeting was already at the brink of collapse when
minor concessions were agreed at the last few hours of the negotiations.
One of the most significant outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting
was the cutting of agricultural subsidies by the end of 2013.
"The
WTO has no right over our lives and we actively oppose the WTO
and transnational agrochemical corporations for imposing corporate
industrial agriculture on us and our communities," the farmers
further declared. Farmers vow to continue the fight in various
ways, such as practicing alternative and more sustainable farming
systems, establishing seedbanks to preserve and improve traditional
plant varieties, and holding mass actions to express their opposition
to the WTO. ###
Download
the Unity Statement Here
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