Seeds for agriculture revitalization

Seeds for agriculture revitalization

Hira Jhamtani and Dey Patria, Denpasar

The government intends to plant 25 million hectares of new
rice fields over the long term and to revive the agriculture
extension service scheme.

What about seeds? Besides water and land, seeds are crucial
means of production in agriculture. Yet farmers are losing
control over their own seeds as intellectual property protection
over seeds is granted to big companies.

A case in point is the recent prosecution of several farmers
in Nganjuk and Kediri, East Java, in a seed ownership dispute
with a seed company.

Tukirin, a simple 53-year-old corn farmer from Nganjuk
Regency, East Java, knew nothing about the Plant Cultivation
System Law (No. 12/1992). He never heard of seed certification,
and was confused as to why farmers who propagated their own seeds
had to register them with the government when his father and his
grandfather and all the farmers who went before him did not have
to do so.

Thus, he got the shock of his life when one Friday afternoon
in October, 2003, he was accused of "stealing parent seeds from
PT Benih Inti Subur Intani (BISI)" by police officers who had
come to his home. They were accompanied by BISI officers, and
several government agricultural extension officers to serve as
witnesses. They confiscated several male and female corn plants
from his field as evidence. Besides Tukirin, his friend Suprapto,
and three other farmers from Kediri were also prosecuted.

Between 1994 and 1998, Tukirin and a few other farmers in Nganjuk
were involved in a collaborative project between PT BISI and the
local government (agriculture office) to propagate corn seeds.
Farmers were given male and female corn seeds, taught a
particular breeding method and then sold the harvested seeds to
the company. There was no written legal contract between the
farmers and the company. When the project ended, there was no
mention of any obligations on the part of the farmers or the
company.

In 2003, Tukirin decided he needed to cut production costs.
So, he thought he would produce his own seeds instead of buying
them every year. He remembered having saved the seeds that were
rejected by the company between 1994 and 1998. So, he applied
what he had learned and experimentally crossed the leftover seeds
with local corn varieties, using a different method. He succeeded
in producing seeds, although their quality was inferior to those
produced by PT BISI.

Other farmers wanted to try Tukirin's seeds, which he sold for
Rp 6,000 (60 U.S. cents) per kilogram compared to Rp 26,000 --
30,000 per kilogram in the shops for BISI seeds. Tukirin sold his
seeds without any labels or certification, and only to his
neighbors and fellow farmers.

For this innovation, Tukirin and his friend, Suprapto, were
taken to court by PT BISI, who alleged charged them with
"stealing parent seeds and pirating propagation methods. Despite
the attempts of the Nganjuk local government to mediate in the
dispute, and Tukirin's apologies, the company pressed ahead with
the charges and Tukirin had to appear in court in January 2005,
without a lawyer. He stuck to his story that he had not stolen
the seeds, that he had not pirated the propagation method and
that he had not known there was a law prohibiting him from
selling seeds to his neighbors.

In the court, as related by Tukirin, PT BISI insisted that
farmers like him should have known about the law and that he and
his colleagues had deliberately broken the law. These arguments
were supported by a government official from the Agency for Seed
Supervision and Certification, who said that all farmers should
be aware of Law No. 12/1992.

Tukirin and his fellow farmers were given one-year
probationary sentences.

The most serious aspect of the case, however, was that the
court prohibited all of the farmers from planting their own
seeds. Local NGOs have reported similar but undocumented cases
from Nganjuk, Kediri, and even Tulung Agung regencies, where
farmers were too afraid to talk to reporters or NGOs about their
convictions.

The court verdict is Tukirin's case is strange as neither he
nor his colleagues actually certified their seeds.

But this case does not merely involve a legal issue. Rather it
is a social, political and developmental issue. It is an issue
that needs to be taken up if the government is serious about the
revitalization of agriculture in this country.

For small farmers like Tukirin, having to appear in court,
answer the questions of strangers like a criminal, while at the
same time not understanding what he is being charged with, may
represent more of a punishment than being imprisoned. As Tukirin
said in an interview, "How come the government does not support
our initiative to become skilled at seed propagation?"

He felt the government should support the farmers. The regent of
Nganjuk showed some support when his office released a statement
deploring PT BISI's actions. The statement said that it was the
government's understanding that the dispute between the farmers and
PT BISI had been settled and so the prosecution of the farmers
was unwarranted.

The government had agreed to cooperate with PT BISI in 1994 in
order that the farmers could get training on modern seed
propagation methods. Yet, when the farmers mastered the
propagation techniques, they were taken to court. But the regent
did nothing else to help the farmers other than issue the
statement.

Indonesia now has two pieces of legislation that could make
Tukirin-style prosecutions commonplace in the future: Law No. 29/2000
on Plant Variety Protection and Law No. 14/2001 on Patents. Both
provide maximum intellectual property protection to companies and
intellectual property owners, at the expense of farmers' rights
to seeds.

Crucial questions need to be asked. In this country, who
should have control over seeds, particularly food crop seeds? Who
does the government want to protect: small farmers or rich
companies?

Therefore, there is a need to reform the entire seed policy in
Indonesia. Because farmers like Tukirin will continue to
experiment in propagating, using, and exchanging their own seeds,
and selling them locally. The government needs to act now to
reform seed policies in the interests of agricultural
revitalization and food sovereignty. As things stand now, how can
agriculture be revitalized without sovereignty over seeds?

Hira Jhamtani is researcher on environmental issues based in
Bali; Dey Patria, who interviewed Tukirin, is a researcher in
Mojokerto.