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.