he branch office of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&RFA) based in New Delhi, was today inaugurated at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU), situated on the outskirts of Ranchi.
The PPV and RFA Chairperson, Dr P L Gautam, inaugurated it on-line at BAU’s Computer Centre Building, a BAU release said.
This office would work for protection of plant varieties, rights of farmers and plant breeders and encourage development of new plant varieties.
Its territorial jurisdiction would consist of six states, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The release quoted Registrar General of the Authority, Dr R C Agarwal, saying that the body instituted annual award of Rs 10 lakh under its ‘Gene Fund’ for farmers’ communities and individual farmers preserving traditional varieties and six such awards had already been given away.
