Surinder Sud: Tech power to farmers

Public-private participation in agricultural research will help farmers make gainful use of technology

Gone are the days when the public-funded agricultural research network treated the private sector as virtually untouchable. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is now making deliberate efforts to reach out to the private sector to incubate and scale up its technologies for gainful use by farmers.

This change in attitude has come about partly because of new economic realities and the intellectual property rights (IPR) regime, and partly because of the realisation that the old mindset was preventing new technology from showing its potential impact on agriculture. In the past, barring high-yielding seeds, which used to be shared by the breeding institutions with the public sector seed organisations for multiplication and distribution to farmers, most other technologies could not reach the farmers or other intended end-users and remained confined to the research centres.

Such a disconnect between technology generators and end-users proved deleterious on other counts as well. For instance, it did not allow the research network to get any economic returns from investment on agricultural research and development (R&D) which, otherwise, are known to be very high. There were, really, no gainers in this kind of a scenario; all were losers. While the technology developers could not draw even mental satisfaction from their scientific achievements as these remained underutilised, the farmers were denied the benefits they could otherwise derive from gainful use of those technologies which were being developed with huge cost and great effort.

At the root of all this was a mandate of the public-funded farm research organisations under ICAR under which it barred making any profit from the research outcome. This has changed. Public-private participation is now deemed imperative not only for effective technology transfer but also for collaborative, problem-solving and need-based research.

According to ICAR Assistant Director-General (IPR management) S Mauria, the beginning was made by involving private seed companies, in addition to public organisations, in the production of seeds of new varieties developed under the ICAR system. This was done by passing on the breeders’ seed to the seed companies for further multiplication on the same terms and conditions as were applicable to the public sector seed producers. This resulted in augmenting the availability of new seeds for the farmers and, in turn, helped the private sector seed industry to grow.

In 2006, ICAR came out with detailed guidelines for the transfer of other kinds of technologies to the private sector collaborators in conformity with IPR norms. Such technology transfer involved payment of royalty by the companies that took up the ICAR technology for commercialisation. This royalty is also shared with technology developers (scientists) to serve as an incentive for them. Research institutes and their scientists are permitted to take up consultancy work as well.

To facilitate such a partnership with the private sector, ICAR created a three-tier system at apex, zonal and institute levels for developing and executing business models for technology transfer. Many of these so-called “technology management and business planning and development units” have roped in MBA degree holders for devising ways and means for promoting public-private participation. Scientists, too, are being provided exposure to IPR issues through training.

These measures were considered necessary because the research institutes or individual scientists had no experience in negotiating business deals. Besides, the prospective entrepreneurs and investors find it convenient to deal with persons specially designated for this purpose.

Another significant step in this direction is being taken this week by holding the ICAR-industry meet in Delhi where the technologies ready for commercialisation will be showcased to industry representatives and their views will be sought on how to cement public-private collaboration in more areas.

It is worth noting that the basket of technologies that ICAR has on offer today is fairly diversified. These are in the areas of seeds and planting material; vaccines, diagnostics and biotechnology products; post-harvest technology and value-addition; and farm implements and machinery. The technologies chosen for immediate transfer are said to have already been assessed for their commercial potential.

This initiative can serve as a launch pad for wider ICAR-industry cooperation for the benefit of all stakeholders in the agriculture sector. Besides the flow of ICAR technology to the industry and further down to the farmers, it can spur the induction of the much-needed private investment in farm research through industry-sponsored research projects on specific topics of interest to the industry.

surinder.sud@gmail.com