Environmental Rights Action (ERA), and Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) have called on the Federal Government to withdraw from the International Union for the Protection of New Plant varieties (UPOV 1991), arguing that the Law, which is line with the UPOV’s provisions, undermines traditional agricultural practices and threatens farmers rights and freedom by opening the door for corporate control.
In a statement issued to commemorate this year’s World Seed Day, the organizations that have been campaigning against UPOV since 2021 acknowledged the resilience, knowledge, and ingenuity of smallholder farmers all over the world who have for generations preserved the biodiversity of seeds and food sovereignty. With the 2025 World Seed Day themed ‘Empowering Farmers-Protecting Biodiversity,’ ERA and HOMEF urged the Nigerian government to promote farmer-managed seed systems and invest in local, resilient seed networks that secure food and ecological justice.
The Deputy Director of Environmental Rights Action and food sovereignty activist, Mariann Bassey-Orovwuje, highlighted that “the process of development of the PVP law was less than transparent, with no public hearings and a lack of consultations and participation of smallholder farmers. This is in contrast to the Nigerian Constitution of 1999, which provides for democracy and social justice as per Article 14 (1) and 14(2) (c ).” In addition, she pointed out that “the law grants final decision-making power to the Minister of Agriculture, particularly in cases of appeal regarding breeders’ rights.
This provision violates Section 36 of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees every citizen the right to a fair hearing and access to justice through the courts. “Concentrating such powers in the hands of a single authority undermines democratic principles and judicial independence. The groups, therefore, advised that Nigeria should develop a ‘sui generis’ plant variety protection system tailored to Nigeria’s unique agricultural context, drawing from the African Model Law. Such a system should ensure that protection mechanisms do not privilege commercial interests at the expense of communal, farmer-driven seed systems. This law must be developed through inclusive, bottom-up consultations with farmers, indigenous communities, civil society, and public research institutions.
This seed law must guarantee farmers’ rights, including the right to save, use and exchange farm-saved seeds without criminalization; ensure full transparency and public access to breeder applications to protect against exploitation and safeguard indigenous knowledge; support smallholder farmers through credible credit facilities, infrastructure, and support for public research institutions that serve farmers’ needs. Also, Nigeria should prioritise the setup of seed banks at the community, local government, and state levels to ensure the preservation of indigenous varieties.”
Also speaking in this statement is Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director, HOMEF, who stated that the Nigerian Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Law fails to recognize the country’s unique agricultural landscape. HOMEF, in partnership with other national and international organizations, has since 2021 campaigned against the setup of Nigeria’s Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Law, which was developed as a requirement for membership in UPOV.
The PVP Law threatens farmers’ rights, biodiversity, and our food sovereignty. Despite our collective voice and a lawsuit against some key components of the law, the Nigerian government, on 27th February 2025, deposited the instrument of accession,n and Nigeria was approved as the eightieth member of UPOV on 27th March 2025. Bassey, who argued that the law creates an imbalanced environment where Intellectual Property Rights override farmers’ rights, added: “It promotes the dominance of commercial seed systems over farmers’ and indigenous seed systems, thereby marginalizing the very people who have sustained our food systems for generations.”
Joyce Brown, Project Lead on Hunger Politics, HOMEF, also contributed her voice to the statement. She noted that careful analysis of the PVP Law has shown that it places severe restrictions not only on the use of farm-saved seed (propagating material) but also on harvested material (e.g., grain) and even further on products made directly from harvested material (e.g., milled maize).
Brown further argued that the PVP law encourages the genetic modification of crops, which has direct implications for human (use of herbicides and pesticidal crops) and environmental health (monocultures) as well as biosafety (destruction of non-target organisms).