Trading in Knowledge

Chapter 12

The Implications of IntellectualProperty for Agricultural Researchand Seed Production in West andCentral Africa

Oumar Niangado and Demba Kebe

INTRODUCTION

The signing of the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization (WTO) in April 1994 passed unnoticed in most West African countries. Few institutions were aware of its contents outside the offices of the ministries of trade. When it was signed, a new term, intellectual property, was added to the experts’ jargon. Previously used only among inventors and artists, the term became established in the life sciences.

The race to appropriate life forms began in 1980 when the Supreme Court of the US authorized the first patent on a gene. The work done since on unravelling the genome ...