The research for this thesis involves empirical and comparative studies alongside contextual analysis of primary and secondary literature. The empirical study conducted in Nigeria for over a period of three months – from August to October 2015 – draws on 52 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders relevant to plant variety protection. The stakeholders include small-scale farmers, farming communities, CSOs, plant breeders, academics, legal practitioners, and government officials from the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Justice, and Trade.
As this thesis seeks to provide deeper insights into plant variety protection in Nigeria which is otherwise unavailable in literature, semi-structured interviews were adopted. Semi-structured interviews are flexible interview methods where the
interviewer has guide questions, but also discretion in the order of interrogation.170
The semi-structured interview method was useful to elicit detailed information
170 Martin Packer, The Science of Qualitative Research (Cambridge University Press 2011) 43; Tim
May, Social Research: Issues, Methods and Process (4th edn, Open University Press 2011) 134-35
(Social Research); Martyn Denscombe, The Good Research Guide for Small-Scale Social Research Projects (5th edn, Open University Press 2014) 186-87.
39 from the interviewees, as the interviewer could seek elaboration and clarification
of answers given.171
The interviewees were selected based on their knowledge of relevant issues covered in the thesis, their willingness to participate, and availability (see Appendix 1 for list of interviewees). Significantly, the interviewees’ responses sufficiently covered the range of issues investigated. Irving Seidman highlights two criteria for determining how many interviewees are enough for a study: sufficiency
and saturation of information.172 Sufficiency is where the numbers reflect the range
of participants, while saturation is the point where the researcher starts hearing the
same information and no longer learns anything new.173
The main challenge in conducting the semi-structured interviews was access to the potential interviewees. The author sent out over 35 formal electronic mails and letters to potential interviewees to initiate contact prior to fieldwork, but only 11 responses were received. Reasons for the low response rate to electronic mail could be limited access to internet services, lack of interest or awareness about plant variety protection, or simply lack of motivation to reply. However, one of the ways in which the author was able to obtain access to the interviewees was by attending a workshop organised to review the guidelines and regulations for Nigeria’s
Biosafety Act.174 Johnson Ekpere (the author’s fourth interviewee) informed the
author about this workshop during her interview with him, and assured her that many of her potential interviewees would attend, which was indeed the case. Ekpere introduced the author to them, which made subsequent scheduling of
interviews easier.175 The second way in which the author obtained access to the
interviewees, particularly top government officials, was by interning at the WTO
171 May, Social Research (n 170) 134-35.
172 Irving Seidman, Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences (Teachers College Press New York 2006) 55.
173 ibid.
174 ‘Biosafety Guideline and Regulation Review Workshop: A Workshop to review the Guidelines
and Regulations of the National Biosafety Management Agency Law’ (Abuja, 18-20 August 2015).
175 The snowball method was adopted here. Snowballing is where one participant introduces or
informs the researcher about other participants. Michael Lewis-Beck, Alan E Bryman, and Tim Futing Liao, The Sage Encyclopaedia of Social Science Research Methods (Sage Publications 2003).
40 office in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment. With this role, the author had direct access and referrals to the government officials working on plant variety protection-related issues in Nigeria. However, the author was unable to interview all the targeted interviewees, as some government officials and academics did not respond to interview requests or were unable to commit to a time for the interview due to busy schedules. Nonetheless, the comprehensive responses from the interviews granted outweighed the few refusals.
The comparative study involved an analysis of the variations in plant variety protection in the Global South. The author examined Global South countries with
both UPOV plant breeder’s rights systems and creative sui generis systems. The
aim of this examination was to draw lessons on plant variety protection law-making for Nigeria. For the group of countries with UPOV plant breeder’s rights systems, the author examined examples from African regional organisations such as the African Intellectual Property Organisation (OAPI), and countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Morocco. For examples of countries with
creative sui generis systems, the author examined India and Thailand’s plant
variety protection systems.
African countries with UPOV ‘plant breeders’ rights’ systems provide useful lessons for Nigeria for two reasons. First, these African countries and Nigeria subscribe to the African Model Law, which provides guidelines for countries
seeking to design sui generis plant variety protection systems. Second, the African
countries and Nigeria contribute to the African position at the TRIPS Council,
which advocates for a sui generis plant variety protection system. Notwithstanding
the African Model Law and Africa’s common position at the TRIPS Council, these African countries have joined UPOV. Therefore, understanding why they joined UPOV would provide invaluable lessons for Nigeria because it still has pending obligations to design a plant variety protection system under TRIPS.
The Indian and Thai experiences are useful examples for a variety of reasons. First, India and Thailand, along with Nigeria and other Global South WTO members,
41 started with the same position on plant variety protection at the TRIPS Council.
These Global South countries collectively advocated for creative sui generis
systems as the most suited option to protect plant varieties. While India and Thailand translated their ‘rhetoric’ into domestic legal architecture, Nigeria is yet to do so. Examining how India and Thailand successfully translated the common Global South position at the TRIPS Council into domestic law provides useful lessons for Nigeria. Second, both India and Thailand have a large population of small-scale farmers, similar to Nigeria. Paying attention to how small-scale farmers’ interests are addressed in India and Thailand’s plant variety protection system can guide Nigeria. Third, both India and Thailand have private seed companies operating in their seed sectors, which is one of the Nigerian government’s agricultural policy objectives. The Nigerian government’s current
agricultural policy seeks to promote private sector investments in agriculture.176
Understanding how India and Thailand balance private seed companies’ and small- scale farmers’ interests generates lessons for Nigeria.
The analysis in this thesis also draws from a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The key primary sources include texts of TRIPS, the CBD, the ITPGRFA, the UPOV Convention, the African Model Law, national plant variety protection laws, and case law. Other official sources on the international treaties include the TRIPS, CBD, ITPGRFA, UPOV and WIPO documents. The research for this thesis benefited from secondary sources such as government, industry, and CSO documents, including working papers and policy reports from national workshops on IPRs in Nigeria, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), Farmers’ Rights Resource Pages, GRAIN, Gaia Foundation, UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Crucible Group, South Centre, Association of Plant Breeders for the Benefit of Society (APBREBES), as well as the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), amongst others. Furthermore, textbooks, articles, and web sources on plant variety protection-related issues also provided useful sources of data. Both the primary and secondary sources were accessible from libraries (mainly the University of Warwick library and the British Library) and online.
42 Overall, the empirical study supplemented the limited literature on plant variety protection in Nigeria. It not only generated new data, it also broadened or clarified data from existing literature. Furthermore, both the comparative study and range of sources consulted helped to provide a richer understanding of the plant variety protection debates.