Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Kashmir organised a three-day online training programme on intellectual property rights in agriculture.
In a statement the varsity said that the training was organised by the university’s Faculty of Agriculture, Wadura campus, under the World Bank-ICAR funded National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP) for the institutional development of SKUAST-K, to mark the World Intellectual Property Day 2021 from April 26-28.
The aim of the training titled, ‘Importance of Intellectual Property in Agriculture’ was to aware the students and the faculty about various aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, World Trade Organization (WTO) trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, National Intellectual Property Rights policy, filing of patents, protection of plant varieties and Farmers Right Act. etc
The online workshop was inaugurated by Prof Azmat Alam Khan, Associate Director Research SKUAST-K. The event commenced with the lecture by organizing secretary Prof. Raihana Habib Kanth, Chief Scientist and Nodal officer, NISF. She briefed about the history and the importance of the IP day, various Intellectual Property Rights and discussed the case studies of patents of Basmati, Neem, Turmeric, Saffron. She also informed about the advantages of getting the GI tag to Kashmir saffron. Dr Khurshid A Bhat, Assistant professor FoA, Wadura gave a detailed presentation about the procedure of filing patents. On the second day of the workshop, Prof Zahoor Ahmed Dar talked about the relevance of the PPVFR, Act in today’s agriculture and how the Act provides for the establishment of an effective system for the protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and the development of new varieties of plants. He further highlighted the necessity to recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution to plant genetic resource conservation.
The third day of the workshop was addressed by Khalid Z Masoodi on “Discoveries and Innovations at SKUAST-K: Turning student research into IPR”. The chief guest, Prof. Nazir A Ganie, Director Planning & Monitoring, PI NAHEP SKUAST K in his valedictory address talked about the importance of Geographical Indication in context to the richness of resources in Jammu and Kashmir and conservation of biodiversity. He also emphasized the mapping of resources & niche crops to identify unique and important crop communities. Prof Ganie also stressed on development of the IPR policy for SKUAST-K and working towards developing a database of farmers’ varieties to be registered with PPVFR, Authority.
The workshop was registered by more than 300 participants from different States/UT’s of India. The participants included teaching and scientific fraternity across the country, research scholars, scientists and programme coordinators of various KVKs.