Discourses on Legal Framework for Protection of Plant Varieties in Sri Lanka

This chapter focuses on Sri Lanka as a relatively unexplored PVR case study in the general comparative literature in the South Asian region based on ownership and stewardship approaches. Comparing ownership with stewardship approaches, the researcher finds that the ownership discourse is inadequate, and stewardship is more suited to Sri Lanka, considering its subsistence agricultural economy. A stewardship approach is attractive if it will uphold the legal space of farmers for maintaining genetic resources through a recognition and reward system rather than just trying to balance FR with breeders’ rights merely within an IP ownership approach. The researcher argues that (Sri Lankan) FR realisation can be achieved, not only through implementation of a TRIPS-consistent sui generis system of IP protection, and uptake of the CBD and FAO Treaty measures for sharing benefits, although these may be required, but also through integrating government policy and collaborating with all stakeholders relevant to agriculture in favour of farming communities. This assessment is borne out by the reluctance so far to enact and apply the draft PVR/PBR legislation and the deployment of alternative means to recognise and reward the local farmers’ cultivation of plant varieties. These competing global and local legal discourses will now be analysed.