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20 | 03 | 2008
AGROINFO – In February 2008, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), with a sponsorship of Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (JMAFF) and in collaboration with UPOV (Protection of New Varieties of Plants) organized a workshop titled “Protection of Plant Varieties according to UPOV Convention”. The workshop was attended by Mr. Bui Ba Bong, Vice Minister of MARD, Mr. Rolf Jordens, Deputy Secretary of UPOV and international guests from Japan, Holland, Switzerland and Australia.
Vietnam is an agricultural production country and has a high demand on plant variety production. Crop seeds play an important role in agriculture. The present objective of Vietnam government is to improve production and quality of plant varieties. Plant variety holds an important role in realizing this objective,.
Currently, plant variety production is mainly a job of the governmental research institutions and has met just 30% of the producers’ set out demand. Private sector and a number of foreign companies started paying attention to this area but their attention is still limited. Up to present only 15 foreign companies have participated in variety selection in Vietnam. The crop seed program at household level of the government, which allows a group of farmers to produce plant varieties, is considered a positive step but it is also facing some weaknesses, which include the absence of a quality control mechanism applied to producers and packages and trademarks fixed to their products. The poor management over these producers is one of the reasons leading to the fact that farmers have to use low quality varieties and the government met a lot of difficulties in motivating different economic sectors to participate in plant variety selection.
In December 2006, Vietnam officially joined UPOV before accessing to WTO. UPOV Convention gives right to individuals and bodies to multiply plant varieties based on minimum standards that the multipliers have to observe. UPOV Convention also gives farmers a right to re-use the protected varieties for multiplication purposes right on their farm lands for the next crops. UPOV Convention prevents all commercialized variety activities to be undertaken without the author’s agreement. Participating in UPOV is a good opportunity to encourage individuals and organizations both at home and abroad to invest in plant variety production. The protection of the rights of selectors will help produce more high quality plant varieties, bring about high economic efficiency and better meet the production demand.
Over the last few years, the protection of plant varieties has been strongly implemented and has recorded with initial important results. The law on plant variety protection issued by the National Assembly gives a legal foundation for the law implementation. According to figures of Plant Variety Protection Office of Cultivation Department (MARD), up to present, about 38 plant varieties have been registered and protected. However, the protection of plant varieties is facing difficulty because of the lack of needed experience and knowledge while stakeholders’ understanding on plant variety protection is still limited and farmers are running small scale production.
In its commitment with UPOV, in 2016, Vietnam has to fulfill protecting all kinds of plant varieties. In views of UPOV specialists, to complete this plan, Vietnam needs to be constructed with proper policies and mechanisms to effectively encourage individuals and research organizations to participate in plant variety selection. Enhancing plant variety protection is an important condition for Vietnam to improve crops quality and help farmers to access higher quality plant varieties.