Leveraging Plant Variety Rights and Innovative Plant Breeding to Enhance Competitiveness in the CARIFORUM Agricultural Sector

During the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) from 9 to 13 October 2023, the CARIFORUM Intellectual Property Rights & Innovation Project (CarIPI), the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO), the CARICOM Agricultural Division and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) will collaborate to implement a series of activities focused on the intellectual property aspects of regional food systems.

These activities aim to develop a roadmap for plant breeders, intellectual property offices, agriculture ministries, R&D institutions and other relevant stakeholders to advance the plant breeding and plant variety rights (PVR) programme in the region.

The CWA is the premier event on the regional agricultural calendar. It provides a forum for key decision-makers in the region’s public and private sectors to better acknowledge the importance of agriculture and rural life for the region’s economic, social and environmental stability.

CarIPI’s activities will span beyond the CWA during the months of September and October with online sessions with stakeholders to commence discussions on the CARICOM PVRs/plant breeding roadmap. There will also be a two-day in-person session in The Bahamas planned on 10-11 October to bring together key stakeholders to foster insightful discussions on bolstering innovation systems for plant breeding.

These activities are part of CarIPI’s Annual Work Plan 4, Activity 16 ‘Support to developing and implementing of PVR legislation and registration frameworks’.