Can plant breeding go open source? | Digital Library
▻https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/story/2015/nov/thu/can-plant-breeding-go-open-source
But Luby is also trying to stake out some intellectual property for future carrot breeders. In the last year alone, 15 patents have been filed for carrot varieties, primarily by one company. Some academic plant breeders are increasingly concerned by the economic concentration of seed companies and the concurrent growth of plant patents. What kind of operating room does that leave for academics and farmers?
There’s not an abundance of data, but in the European Union in 2011, the top five seed companies applied for 91% of intellectual property rights. Luby’s graduate project is to map this patent thicket to determine the current operating room in carrot breeding. But she’s also planting a flag. “What we’d like to do is then release some of these populations under the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) so that the diversity remains available to use for breeding,” she explains.
#graines #semences #libre #open_source #brevets #agriculture #plant_breeding