Hyderabad: National seminar on "Intellectual Property Rights organised

Hyderabad: A national seminar titled "Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Forest Genetic Resource Conservation & Management" was organised on Friday at Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI) Mulugu, in Siddipet.

It is meant to emphasise the need and technique involved in precision tree farming which will give more income to farmers and bring more income-yielding and fast-growing species and also meet the demand of the wood industry and domestic wood requirements.

Inaugurating the seminar, Priyanka Varghese, dean of the forest college, informed the main objective of the seminar was to create awareness about various IP tools available for forest genetic resource conservation and management.

Dr. Manoranjan Bhanja (IFS retd.) gave a lecture on works taken up by the State Forest department on development of various genetic resources, their conservation and management.

Dr Neeraja Prabhakar, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Konda Laxman Telangana State Horticultural University, the chief guest, spoke about the biodiversity of India vis-à-vis the globe. She stressed the importance of conservation of the biodiversity for posterity.

Dr R. Vasudeva delivered a lecture on "Genetic resource and traditional knowledge management under the IPR regime". He detailed the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation.

He Informed that the worth of genetic resources from various products is almost equivalent to that of petro-chemicals and software & hardware, but unaccounted, The ecosystem services are not accounted for. He explained the various examples of the commercialisation of genetic resources and related legal issues,

Vasudeva emphasized that the resources are to be mapped and assessed, protocols developed for their sustainable utilisation and patents obtained.

Dr A. Balasubramanian delivered a lecture on "Varietal protection for trees: descriptors and test guidelines". He emphasised the need for technological interventions for plantation productivity, as the demand for wood is increasing every year. "The high-quality and yielding varieties of various species are to be identified through morphological characters which are manifestations of the genes, and the descriptors for each species to be formulated. These varieties are multiplicated through tissue culture and cultivated through precision farming for shortening the rotation and yearly income. Market linkages for the products to be established".