Plant variety certificate

The plant variety certificate is an industrial property title which confers an exclusive right over a plant variety. It protects the work of the breeder on any plant material, whether a horticultural cultivar or agricultural seeds.

The nature and grant of the plant variety certificate

The certificate is an instrument of intellectual property. It confers on its holder an exclusive right over a newly created or discovered variety. In France, it is granted by the National Authority for Plant Varieties. For the European Union, the Community Plant Variety Office grants an equivalent title. Protection lasts in principle twenty-five years, and thirty years for certain species.

The certificate encourages plant innovation. It allows breeders to recoup their research and development investments.

The conditions and effects of the certificate

To obtain a certificate, the breeder must establish that the variety is new, distinct, uniform and stable. It must also bear a denomination. The holder then has the exclusive right to produce, reproduce, condition, offer for sale, sell or import the propagating material of the variety. Farmers may however, under conditions, resow the product of their own harvest.

At the international level, the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) frames these titles. It sets common standards and criteria for protecting plant varieties.

The debates around the plant variety certificate

Plant variety certificates raise several questions, notably:

1. Intellectual property disputes. The exclusive right of the holder may set it against farmers or other breeders.
2. Conflicts of interest. Farmers sometimes see their ability to resow or exchange seeds limited, which weighs on their practices.
3. Biodiversity. According to some, the certificates reduce the diversity of available seeds, favouring commercial varieties over local ones.
4. Food security. The debate also concerns the resistance of protected varieties to diseases and pests, and their adaptation to climate change.
5. Food sovereignty. The certificates finally raise the question of the capacity of states to protect their genetic heritage and control their food production.

For these reasons, plant variety certificates feed many debates in agriculture and the environment.