Strong IP protection laws, licensing crucial for Africa’s food security, sufficiency ― TAAT

​To scale up investments in the agriculture sector and its various value chains for improved yields and development, governments of African countries have been urged to ensure the protection of intellectual property and licensing for crop varieties in the continent.

This was the submission of discussants and participants at the 2022 Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Investors Forum which was held virtually on Tuesday.

The Director, Agriculture and Agro Industry at the African Development Bank, Dr Martin Fregene, in his presentation, noted that the issue of non-protection of intellectual property and assets rights of crop varieties and proper licensing in various countries of the continent, posed huge challenges to the private sector investment, research and development of many crop varieties.

Dr Fragene called on the government to ensure the protection of intellectual property of varieties and licensing agreements, create an enabling environment for the sector to thrive and harmonise regional seeds markets.

He also said that private sector involvement in agriculture has become crucial for African countries to achieve food security and sufficiency by integrating innovative technologies in agriculture for increased yields.

Dr Fregene, while noting that “the private sector creates a comfortable environment to generate and attract financing for agriculture”, said the continent should boost its production of tropical crops, such as maize, rice, wheat, cassava, sorghum/millet, etc, that it has an advantage over other parts of the world.

Rodrigo Sara, an Intellectual Property (IP) lawyer and tech-transfer specialist, who spoke on ‘Principles on the management of intellectual assets and intellectual property, said the private and public sectors have an intersection in their IP licensing approaches which aim at “serving emerging markets and addressing global challenges.”

Sara said for the public sector licensing approach, “research is upstream and decoupled from commercialisation; dissemination focuses on International Public Goods (non-excludability, non-rivalry) and targets small-scale farmers and consumers with limited purchasing power or market access.”

On the other hand, he said that in the private sector licensing approach, research is “linked to commercialisation pipeline and product life-cycle; produces products that will appeal to paying customers; dissemination focuses on IP protection/licensing and exclusivity; targets paying customers and priority is to maximise returns.”

Sara said for its intellectual assets and property management, Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR) adopt limited exclusivity agreements which include that varieties are limited in duration, territory and field of use; available for non-commercial use by public research organisations; available in food security emergencies; necessary for further development or to enhance the scale and scope of impact and complies with treaties and national laws governing access and benefits sharing.

Frederick Schreurs, Business Development Officer with the TAAT Clearinghouse, also spoke on ‘Scaling and licensing concepts via the private sector’ during the forum.

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The event featured presentations of improved varieties of crops such as rice, maize, wheat, cassava, etc., by researchers from TAAT and its agencies and innovative agricultural processes for various crops using agriculture.

Such varieties include the DroughtTEGO maize hybrid which Mr Munyaradzi Jonga of the AATF, in his presentation, described as “new elite climate-smart maize hybrids that are drought and disease tolerant and high yielding” and licensed to seed companies in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa and Burkina Faso.

Mr Ernest Asiedu of Africa Rice, in his presentation on ‘Improved and climate-smart market preferred rice varieties and hybrids, said the research centre focuses on developing rice seed varieties that suit the different land types and topography of a country.

While noting that only 26 countries in Africa have attained rice self-sufficiency at various levels, Mr Asiedu said that such market indices as consumer preference, quality standards and packaging drives the rice value chain.

On his part, Zewdie Bishaw said with partnership from TAAT, SARD-SC has developed about 30 wheat varieties for irrigated and rain-fed areas in Africa such as Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger and Sudan.

Bishaw said the wheat varieties are “high yielding, heat tolerant and water use efficient varieties for irrigated lowlands, high grain yield and rust-resistant varieties for cooler rain-fed highlands, short maturing varieties for double cropping in lowland irrigated areas and high grain quality, with protein content of 12-15 per cent, suitable for agro-processors of food products.”

He said with these wheat varieties, the sector is guaranteed “expansion of frontiers of wheat production in heat stress lowlands in sub-Saharan Africa; increased productivity and production thereby reducing import gaps of wheat; increased farmer income from wheat production through value addition; job creation for youth in the wheat value chain and availability of good quality wheat grain for local agro-processing.”

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Strong IP protection laws, licensing crucial for Africa’s food security, sufficiency ― TAAT

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Strong IP protection laws, licensing crucial for Africa’s food security, sufficiency ― TAAT