Courtesy of Brian Weir, CAMBIA
This tobacco seedling, tranformed with
Though agricultural biotechnology has the potential to transform small-scale farming in developing countries, such transformation faces a major bottleneck: the intellectual property landscape. Case in point: Golden Rice, engineered to produce beta-carotene (a source of vitamin A), is subject to approximately 40 patents that initially hampered its dissemination to developing countries.
Further, if a scientist in the public sector, small biotech company, or developing country wishes to make improvements to a proprietary crop technology, the same patent jungle can make it difficult to transfer these improvements to farmers. "When you start having tens or hundreds of patents necessary to reduce to practice one idea, then it becomes untenable. And basically innovation grinds to a halt," especially for technologies that are not obviously profitable, says Richard Jefferson, CEO and ...
