Page 32 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 18

Food Health
Food Health

Tanzanian Farmers

Are Facing Heavy Prison Sentences If They Continue Their Traditional Seed Exchange

by Ebe Daems and Kweli Ukwethembeka Iqiniso. GRAIN | 8 Jan 2017

Link to original publication:
https://grain.org/bulletin_board/ tance, Tanzania amended its legisla- Under the new law, Tanzanian farm-
entries/5633-tanzanian-farmers-are-fac- tion, which should give commercial ers risk a prison sentence of at least
ing-heavy-prison-sentences-if-they-contin- investors faster and better access 12 years or a fine of over €205,300,
ue-their-traditional-seed-exchange to agricultural land as well as a very or both, if they sell seeds that are
strong protection of intellectual not certified.
In order to receive develop- property rights.
ment assistance, Tanzania has ‘That’s an amount that a Tanzanian
to give Western agribusiness ‘If you buy seeds from Syngenta or farmer cannot even start to imagine.
full freedom and give enclosed Monsanto under the new legislation, The average wage is still less than 2
protection for patented seeds. they will retain the intellectual prop- US dollars a day’, says Janet Maro,
“Eighty percent of the seeds erty rights. If you save seeds from head of Sustainable Agriculture
are being shared and sold in an your first harvest, you can use them Tanzania (SAT).
informal system between neigh- only on your own piece of land for
bors, friends and family. The new non-commercial purposes. You’re Under pressure of the G8
law criminalizes the practice in not allowed to share them with your
Tanzania,” says Michael Farrelly neighbors or with your sister-in-law Tanzania applied the legislation
of TOAM, an organic farming in a different village, and you cannot concerning intellectual property
movement in Tanzania. sell them for sure. But that’s the rights on seeds as a condition for
entire foundation of the seed system receiving development assistance
In order to get developmental assis- in Africa’, says Michael Farrelly. through the New Alliance for Food

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