Agri Inspec continued to investigate infringements of Plant Breeders’ Rights, as well as transgressions of the Plant Improvement Act, with special emphasis on the Seed Certification Scheme during their third term of service to the seed trade.

The procedure for members to lodge complaints was to contact the SANSOR office, providing all relevant information such as name and address of the transgressor, where available, nature of the transgression and copies of the advertisement if applicable.  SANSOR would then formally request Agri Inspec to investigate the matter.  Reporting of the outcome would be to the complainant only until the matter had been concluded, after which it would be made public through press releases. 

It is important for members to take note of the mandate of Agri Inspec, which is as follows:

• Identify and investigate transgressions of the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act, as well as the Plant Improvement Act;

• Prioritize suspects and process cases for further legal action; and

• Compile an information network for future preventative actions.

Any further investigations required by members would be for their own account.

Agri Inspec recorded several successful prosecutions during the period under review.  No less than five cases led to admission of guilt fines, while a further two were due for court appearances.  Other minor cases were concluded in an amicable manner and transgressors let off with stern warnings.

As the ultimate objective of the seed trade was to stop or severely limit illegal seed sales and not to prosecute per sé, an awareness campaign was implemented.  It entailed informing the public in general about the Agri Inspec involvement in the seed trade.  This had been achieved through several radio interviews on relevant radio stations, as well as television appearances due for transmission during 2004.  Press releases of successful cases would also be released during the forthcoming year.

A poster (right), together with information pamphlets, was scheduled for display and distribution at points where potential infringers and/or transgressors regularly visit, like Co-operatives.  As many cases of infringements and/or transgressions were owing to ignorance, this initiative was expected to deter such actions.

The South African Variety List continued to be streamlined as an additional spin off generated by the Agri Inspec contract (contractual fee is collected from SANSOR members based on the number of varieties they maintain on the List, as well as on the Plant Breeders’ Rights Register).  This initiative has significantly decreased the workload of Variety Control within the offices of the Registrars of Plant Improvement and Plant breeders’ Rights, as well as made it easier for all concerned to get new varieties listed.

As the involvement of Agri Inspec in the seed trade showed positive results, their contract had been renewed for at least another term.