From farmers’ rights to the rights of peasants: seeds and the biocultural turn

In light of the ongoing agrobiodiversity erosion process, we delve into the history of
crop genetic resources governing instruments to show how the international agrobiodiversity regime has evolved from a limited appreciation of the contribution of
farmers/peasants to a broader recognition of the critical role indigenous peoples,
local communities, and farmers play in shaping and cultivating agrobiodiversity.
We explore the genesis and development of various international soft and hard law
instruments that make up this international agrobiodiversity regime. We focus on
the period stretching from the 1983 Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources, to the 2018 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. The
refexion is organised around three lines. First, we show the advent of the concept
of “farmers’ rights” and underline its initial indeterminacy. Then, we move on to the
issue of farmers/peasants in the aftermath of the Convention on Biological Diversity
and analyse the crystallisation of debates around incentivising and driving on-farm
maintenance of crop genetic resources. Finally, we conclude by outlining the new
framework ofered by biocultural approaches to rethink peasants’ rights.