Protection of Farmers' Rights to Develop Local Crop Varieties Based on Fairness

Abstract

Indonesia is a country with significant agricultural potential. Within the framework of national law, Indonesia has established regulations to protect farmers' rights. At the international level, Indonesia has also demonstrated its commitment by ratifying the CBD, ITPGRFA, and the Nagoya Protocol. However, despite the existence of normative bases regulating the protection of farmers' rights, the implementation of these provisions in practice remain suboptimal. Local farmers often do not receive adequate recognition for their contributions. The type of research used normative legal research. Normative legal research is a type of research that analyzes and examines secondary data or reference materials. The study's results indicate that the protection of farmers' rights in Indonesia remains weak due to the dominance of an individualistic approach to intellectual property, as reflected in the PVT Law, which does not adequately accommodate the collective contributions of farmers to local varieties. Traditional farmers' rights, such as seed breeding and exchange, are marginalized and even at risk of criminalization. Farmers' weak bargaining position is exacerbated by factors such as age, low educational levels, and a lack of regeneration due to the negative stigma associated with the farming profession. Although Government Regulation No. 56 of 2022 recognizes farmers' knowledge as communal wealth, the documentation requirements pose an obstacle. The Access and Benefit-Sharing principle has also been adopted in Law No. 65 of 2024, but it has not been supplemented with technical implementation regulations. Therefore, Regulatory reform is needed through a sui generis system that recognizes the collective rights of farmers, as well as a revision of the PVT Law and the issuance of technical government regulations to ensure fair and contextual legal protection.