The African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) is pleased to share 10 easy to read posters on intellectual property rights in relation to seed and what these mean for smallholder farmers. These posters come at a time where there is pressure on African governments to adopt new stringent intellectual property laws, namely, Plant Variety Protection (PVP) on seed. These new PVP laws give strong rights to breeders while undermining farmers' rights and seed sovereignty. Most farmers and civil society organisations have been locked out of the process of developing these PVP laws, while others are keen to learn more about what these laws entail.

The posters have been produced in various languages and are available for download in English, French, Swahili, Shona, IsiZulu, Sotho, and Portuguese.

They are available on a range of topics including: Farmers Rights and the Seed Treaty; What is Plant Variety Protection (PVP) and protected varieties?; Seed sovereignty for farmers; Women as custodians of seed; Plant Breeders' Rights; Farmers' Rights and UPOV 1991; Farmer-managed seed systems; Seed from the commercial sector; Monsanto's theft of Turkey's purple carrot; Sui generis laws for PVP/PBR protection; and ARIPO: harmonisation of Plant Variety Protection in Africa.

The posters are written in plain language and have been illustrated. They are therefore, simple and easy to read and represent a good source of information to share with farmers. The posters will be particularly useful in assisting in training workshops, farmer field schools, farmer to farmer trainings and other farmer and civil society fora in order to share knowledge and information with and between farmers.

To download the posters please click on this link:

http://www.acbio.org.za/lists/lt.php?id=Yh8GB1dIU1FICQgAAA