Farmers and stakeholders lack awareness and knowledge about ABS issues including ownership rights of farmers and communities to genetic resources.
In addition, farmers are not adequately represented in national level fora and decision-making bodies concerning the use and conservation of agricultural
genetic resources. Community seed banks as a form of farmer organization, do not have formal legal status as such, hindering their organizational development.
The country lacks legal means to protect farmers’ rights and traditional knowledge on genetic resources (Gauchan 2008). Legislation on plant variety protection,
farmers’ rights and access and benefit sharing mechanisms is not formally in place, which hinders facilitated access and exchange of genetic resources
and the creation of incentives for farmers, plant breeders and other actors to conserve and sustainable use the diverse agricultural genetic resources of the
country (Gauchan et al 2017). The Seed Act 1988 (amended 2008) mentions breeders’ rights (specific details are not outlined), but the provision for farmers’
rights is not included. The Agriculture Development Strategy (2015) clearly emphasizes the broad rights of farmers related to agriculture, land and support
services, but does not elaborate specific rights of farmers and local communities to agricultural genetic resources as per the provisions of the ITPGRFA.