Breeders rights
Breeding new varieties
The aim of breeding is to obtain new varieties of plants, which are better than the existing ones that are available to the producer and user. They are important for better production efficiency and greater production sustainability. Important characteristics are:
- higher yields
- reduced farmers risk
- reduced crop failure from hazards of weather, pests and diseases
- improved quality
Costs
New plant varieties are the result of a substantial investment of human skill, labour, material resources, money and time. Breeders are ready to undertake such expensive work only if they have a chance to recover the cost and receive adequate remuneration for their efforts.It is estimated that in the Netherlands, the total cost for breeding, developing, introducing and commercializing a new variety easily reaches about € 500 000. Breeder's rights are important to recover these costs. The level of breeder's rights payments is about € 1,25 for every 100 kg of seed potatoes certified. The breeder pays about 40-60% to his representative as a compensation for the commercialization of his variety.
Cost recovery
In the absence of plant breeders rights it is difficult to recover the cost of breeding since there is nothing to prevent others from multiplying the breeder's seed or other propagating material and selling the variety on a commercial scale, without recognizing in any way the work of the breeder. Therefore the legal protection of breeders rights is meant to encourage the development and trade of improved varieties, which is considered to be both in the public interest and the interests of breeders.
LEGISLATION BREEDERS RIGHTS