Seeds of change: The mobilization of farmers as knowledge-users

Since the 1980s, the provision of new plant varieties has become increasingly privatized and concentrated by transnational corporations. These have pressured states around the world to reform intellectual property regimes in ways that would maximize their share in the economic returns provided by the plant varieties they commercialize. In many cases, this has meant curtailing the rights of farmers as knowledge-users, especially the right to save seeds for future cultivation. Farmers have responded to this challenge in different ways, with important implications for their capacity to shape intellectual property regimes. This paper compares the mobilization of soy growers in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay in disputes over intellectual property on seeds from 1990 to today. The analysis shows that transnational competition undermines the capacity of farmers to halt intellectual property reforms. On the other hand, successful mobilization on the national level depends on the capacity to articulate a public discourse in terms of the national interest, to coordinate actions nationally and persistently, and to act independently from other segments of the agribusiness.