Emeritus Professor, Dr. Krishna Kothai gave a talk on intellectual property rights in the context of Indian agriculture, to the MBA students at the Poornaprajna Institute of Management on 11-2-2019.
He observed that though agriculture is the economic lifeline of India, it’s a contribution to the national economy is just 17-19% which is abysmally low compared to the population dependent on it. Obsolete methods of farming are one of the reasons for POOR agricultural production apart from others. Use of technology appropriate to agriculture is the need of the hour.
New inventions and innovations are a must in the field of agriculture. It is here that intellectual property rights come in to play in the field of agriculture.
Newer varieties of crops, inventions of agricultural equipment call for patenting which would act as an incentive to farmers and researchers.
Though India is rich in Traditional knowledge and Native wisdom, lack of IPR knowledge has put the country back……he observed.