Supporting Sustainable Innovations: An Examination of India Farmer Agrobiodiversity Conservation

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1070496519870299
• Author: Natalie Kopytko
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Supporting Sustainable

Innovations: An

Examination of India

Farmer Agrobiodiversity

Conservation

Natalie Kopytko

1

Abstract

Critical to sustainable agriculture, agrobiodiversity conservation provides immediate

benefits and retains options for climate change adaptation. Reframing conservation as

sustainable seed innovation allows for a dynamic view of farmer contributions.

Sustainable seed innovation entails in situ conservation and the innovation of new

plant varieties through traditional practices. Farmer interviews from regions through-

out India form the empirical basis, while the concept intellectual property-broad,

integrated with evolutionary economics, informs theory. Sustainable seed innovation

within India receives support primarily from nonprofit groups favoring open-source

systems. Conserving natural and financial capital motivated farmers to adopt sustain-

able techniques, but farmers believed attracting additional innovators required devel-

opment of new markets. India’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act

recognizes farmers as plant breeders but does not provide incentive to innovate

sustainably. Moreover, agricultural policies reinforced by an underlying discourse

where ‘‘progressive’’ farmers follow unsustainable practices incentivizes formal

innovations, at the expense of sustainable innovations of farmers.

Keywords

intellectual property, innovation, agrobiodiversity, evolutionary economics,

sustainable agriculture

The Journal of Environment &

Development

2019, Vol. 28(4) 386–411

!The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496519870299

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1

Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK

Corresponding Author:

Natalie Kopytko, Leeds Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, 29 Clarendon Place, Leeds

LS2 9JY, UK.

Email: N.Kopytko@leeds.ac.uk

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2017) called for

a substantial shift toward holistic ecological approaches informed by traditional

knowledge and away from high-input unsustainable agricultural production.

They reasoned that only a major transformation would assure food security

while also addressing water shortages, soil depletion, and greenhouse gas emis-

sions. Sustainable transitions of this magnitude require technological, institu-

tional, and social innovation (Rodima-Taylor, Olwig, & Chhetri, 2012). By

reframing in situ agrobiodiversity conservation as sustainable seed innovation,

this article situates agrobiodiversity conservation at the center of a transition

process toward sustainable agriculture. The aim of this research was to identify

how to foster sustainable seed innovation among smallholder farmers in India

and, thereby, contribute to the wider literature related to sustainable

innovations.

Sustainable seed innovation involves the parallel promotion of in situ innov-

ation of plant varieties and agrobiodiversity conservation by farmers

(Kochupillai, 2016). Acknowledging agrobiodiversity as sustainable innovation

permits (a) the creation of policies that promote sustainability rather than rely-

ing exclusively on regulating natural resource use, (b) the inclusion of topics

considered within innovation-related literature, and (c) the opportunity to learn

how to create systems that support other types of sustainable innovation. In this

case, sustainable denotes sustained biodiversity but concurrently achieves wider

sustainability goals as agrobiodiversity provides insurance against crop failure,

nutritional security, and more optimal labor availability and includes the experi-

ences of small-scale farming communities (Dwivedi, 2014; Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations, 2011). Moreover, traditional knowledge of

what works under specif‌ic conditions and continued access to genetic diversity

provide a vital strategy for adapting to climate change (Smith, Bragdon, &

Elliott, 2015).

The varieties cultivated today exist due to the selection done by generations of

farmers; yet, many do not view the process of cultivating and developing trad-

itional varieties within farmers’ f‌ields as innovative (Vanloqueren & Baret,

2009). These locally adapted farmer varieties have greater genetic variability

providing yield stability in even the most challenging climatic conditions

(Lehmann, 1981). By comparison, high-yielding formally improved varieties

have a very narrow genetic base and typically perform well only with the use

of chemical fertilizers and pesticides (Hasan & Abdullah, 2015). Despite these

qualities, seed improvements have moved out of the f‌ields to being set in formal

lab situations and valuing genetic uniformity (Kochupillai, 2016).

In addition, farmers’ varieties require further selection to meet the uniformity

standard required for intellectual property (IP) protection through plant variety

registration (Salazar, Louwaars, & Visser, 2007). Intellectual property rights

(IPRs) value individual exclusive rights; however, often communities conserve

and improve upon farmers’ varieties. At the same time, acknowledging

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