Promoting the Rural Genius: TRIPS for the Poor.

Photo: Mr. Alagarsamy and his award winning, life changing, moringa tree. Photo by SEVA.

For all the talk at the international level about intellectual property rights, very few of us consider what goes into protecting and promoting the intellectual property of poor, rural geniuses.

SEVA (Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Voluntary ACtion) however, is on the job.

In this project, they documented 100 local coping mechanisms for common hazards. But these aren't just traditional methods of protecting crops or livestock.

They are innovations.

Their goals was to motivate rural people to continue developing innovative coping practices to reduce their vulnerability to climate change .

SEVA uncovered a number of innovations in agriculture, animal husbandry, human and animal epidemics. In one example, a 51-year-old farmer in a local district, a man named Mr. Alagarsamy, successfully crossed the Yaazhpanam moringa tree to the Coimbatore local variety of moringa to create a new, drought-tolerant variety.

Moringa trees produce moringa fruit which is rumored to be the most nutrient rich fruit yet discovered, and "since 1998, the World Health Organization has promoted Moringa as an alternative to imported food supplies to treat malnutrition," according to a juice company that bottles and sells the stuff.

This drought-tolerant moringa needs less water, making it more resilient to drying climates - one visible impact of climate change in some areas of Tamil Nadu. It's also more fruitful than other varieties. It is estimated that with one tree, a farmer can earn Rs.2000 per year.

For Mr. Alagarsamy, the tree has changed his life.

In addition to farming, Alagarsamy, now sells stem cuttings of his special trees. He has already sold more than 600,000 seedlings to farmers in other dry lands. He runs a growing business, employing 20 women to graft seedlings in his nursery.

For his hard work, Mr. Alagarsamy recently won a microentreprenuership award from Citibank. The cash price was for 3 million rupees. SEVA nominated him for the award.

Not only does SEVA hope documentation will help spread the good practices to other vulnerable people who could benefit from them; they hope that the process benefits the innovator, as it has benefitted Mr. Alagarsamy.

“Knowledge providers should not be impoverished,” Vivekandan, executive director of SEVA, said.

SEVA's goal is to validate these innovations and turn them into lucrative businesses for the innovators. For a number of the innovations, SEVA is helping inventors get patents.

But documentation is the first step.

“By documenting these practices we are putting them in the public domain. Tomorrow, no one can claim they invented it,” said Vivekanandan.