Intellectual Property Rights & Sustainable Agriculture: The Larger Question of Food Security

Ensuring the food security of a growing population is one of the biggest challenges that the world is facing today. Climate change and the associated uncertainties in weather patterns are making this an increasingly difficult task. The solution is to move towards a more sustainable agricultural system that focuses on developing technologies and practices that improve agricultural productivity with minimal adverse effects on the environment. IPR is considered an effective tool to incentivize innovations in technologies like agricultural biotechnology which offers sustainable technological solutions to the problems of climate change. However, the restrictive nature of conventional IPR is considered a threat to traditional agricultural practices and farmers’ rights. This paper studies this conflict and analyse the scope and limitations of introducing IPR in agriculture and its impact on the sustainability of the agricultural system. It is feared that the dominant presence of IPR in agriculture is a threat to sustainable agriculture and food security in countries like India where a large section of the population is dependent on small-holder agriculture for their livelihood. This paper is an exploration of the issues associated with providing IPR over plant varieties and biotechnological inventions in India and its impact on sustainable agricultural practices, farmers’ rights, and food security.