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Vittorio Santaniello
Over the recent past two developments with impoP> Over the recent past two developments with important implications for agricultural research and technology have taken place. The first is the expansion of patent rights to incorporate genetic resources either directly through cloned patent genes or indirectly trougth patenting plant varieties. The second is the rapid development of biotechnology methods and their application to plant breeding and improvement.
The GATT has introduced the TRIPS ( the trade related aspects of intellectual property rights ) among th new areas of aggreement and the 1999 Round will - among other things - analyse the experience of their first enactment. This assesment will inevitably relate to a large extent to plant varieties.
The revision of the International Undertaking, that is taking place in the month of June in Rome at the Fao, should mark another step forward in the definition of the Farmers' Right issue.
Traditional public sector plant breeding programs as well as the private sector activity in plant breeding and the new developing " gene markets " will be required to respond to these developments.
Horticultural research, peraps even more then other agricultural
research subsector, will be influenced by those development. The
" scientific human race " that those developments have
stimulated and that has already started will require a deep understanding
of the forces in motion and the way in which a competitf the forces in motion and the way in which a competitive advanges
can be obtained.