Farmers’ rights trampled on

This week we publish a press release from Niger. It comes from the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (la Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africain – COPAGEN). It concerns a variety of onions called Violets de Galmi.

Following the demand submitted to the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAP) by TROPICASEM, a Senegalese subsidiary of the French co-operative Limagrain specialising in the sales of seeds, for the certification of “Violets de Galmi” seeds for their own benefit, the affiliated organisations of COPAGEN, Niger called a special general assembly meeting on the 16^th of April at the headquarters of the farmers’ organisation Plate Forme Paysanne to make the following declaration :

- Considering that the “Violet de Galmi” onion variety is of Nigerien origin and derives its name from the area in which it was first developed from a wild to a cultivated plant. Galmi is a village in the Municipality of Doguéraoua, Birni N’Konni district in the Tahoua county in Niger. It was only later on that this see variety was spread to other parts of West Africa, because of its high quality ;

- Considering that the local Nigerien communities (the farmers) like other farmers elsewhere in the world, have a collective property right over traditional plants, that they themselves have turned from wild to cultivated and/or enhanced, these plants are considered part of their genetic heritage;

- Considering that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the property rights of “all persons, individually or jointly“, nobody can be arbitrarily deprived of her/his property;

- Considering that the African Charter of Human Rights and Peoples’ Rights, guarantees the right to property and free use for the population of the nation’s wealth and natural resources;

- Considering that national sovereignty in the protection and conservation of bio-diversity is recognised for all states in accordance with the Rio Convention;

- Anxious to safeguard the social, economic and cultural rights of the Nigerien communities

We strongly denounce the attitude of certain French companies and their subsidiaries in Niger in general, and the attempt at deprivation orchestrated by the Senegalese co-operative TROPICASEM in particular, in complicity with the French multinational Limagrain;

Consider the action taken by Tropicasem and its accomplices a theft and confiscation of a breed which has required more than a century of work by the farming communities in Galmi. This is an act of immense disdain towards African farmers in general and Nigerien farmers in particular;

Denounce and strongly condemn the silence and mute collusion by the competent Nigerian authorities, who besides the seed fair organised in Sénégal, will contribute to the sacrifice of Nigerien farmers and the entire Nigerien nation.

Call upon the Nigerien government to speedily take all the necessary action to rebut the submission of Tropicasem at the African Intellectual Property Rights Organisation , before the official deadline in August 2009, without precluding legal action against the company;

Call upon the civil society organisations and farmers’ organisations in particular as well as resource persons, who are eager to uphold the respect for human rights and human dignity, justice and the future of peasant farming, to join forces in order to back up and give assistance to the Nigerien communities to overturn the illicit maneouvering of Tropicasem and the OAPI.

Niamey April 16^th 2009

The National Co-ordinators of

COPAGEN, Niger