Objectives of MICROB-COM
MICROB-COM emphasises the role of farm practices and ecological interactions of humans-crops-microbes in the evolution of beneficial traits in agricultural microorganisms. Farmers have acted as selection agents in the development of crop and agricultural microbes by increasing the reproductive fitness of particular genotypes. While development of crop varieties involves a conscious and directed selection of desired traits, an important difference in microbial selection in agriculture is that it may be less directed or even unconscious. The act of selecting crops with desired traits can inadvertently select beneficial microorganisms associated with the selected crop. The end consequence is the development of useful microbial germplasm through a farmer-ecology mediated selection process.
MICROB-COM uses this farmer-crop-microbe relationality in ecology to build a narrative for a new generation of intellectual property laws that will recognize the claim of ecological processes for intellectual property rights for the evolution of beneficial traits. The following objectives were envisaged for this purpose:
- Analysing the normative implications of the microbial commons for law.
- Mapping the deficiencies of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the failure to incorporate rights of nature in the context of benefit sharing.
- Developing a model microbial rights instrument recognizing intellectual property rights of nature’s ecological processes in the evolution of beneficial traits in agricultural microbes