A PKR MP has urged the government against attending and ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 1991 (Upov 1991) in Geneva next month, as it will negatively impact Malaysian farmers.

The convention “aims to provide and promote an effective system of plant variety protection to encourage the development of new varieties of plants around the world”, it states on the website.

“Any decisions made (in Geneva), like setting up an intellectual property rights system for new plant varieties, for example, will only benefit plant breeders and researchers from developed nations,” PKR’s Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul said in a statement.

Such decisions will also demand drastic changes to be made to Malaysian legislation, he said.

Malaysia already has a Protection of New Plant Varieties Act 2004 that protects local farmers’ ability to breed new plant varieties, he said.