By Abdullahi Lukman
As the world commemorated World Seed Day on April 26, 2025, a growing chorus of environmental and food sovereignty advocates has sounded the alarm over Nigeria’s recent accession to the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV 1991).
Leading the charge is the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a Nigerian ecological think tank, which is calling for Nigeria’s immediate withdrawal from the treaty, describing it as a threat to biodiversity, farmers’ rights, and the country’s food sovereignty.
HOMEF, in partnership with the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) and other national and international allies, warns that UPOV 1991 entrenches corporate control over seeds and undermines the traditional farming systems that have long supported Nigeria’s food security.
In a statement issued to mark World Seed Day, the group emphasized that seeds are not just agricultural inputs—they are sacred carriers of culture, identity, and ecological resilience.
“Nigeria’s decision to join UPOV is not only short-sighted, it is dangerous,” said Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of HOMEF.
“It locks farmers into dependency on commercial seed systems and strips them of their age-old rights to save, share, and breed seeds—practices that have sustained our food systems for generations.”
HOMEF has been campaigning against Nigeria’s Plant Variety Protection (PVP) Law since 2021, a law which was developed primarily to meet UPOV’s rigid membership criteria.
The group has consistently argued that the PVP Law does not reflect Nigeria’s agricultural realities, where over 80 percent of farmers are smallholders using indigenous knowledge and traditional seed practices to feed millions.
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Despite sustained advocacy, public consultations, and an ongoing legal challenge, the Nigerian government deposited its instrument of accession to UPOV on February 27, 2025, and was formally admitted as the 80th member of the treaty a month later.
Critics say the government acted in disregard of widespread public concern and scientific evidence warning against the negative impacts of seed monopolies.
“The PVP Law prioritizes intellectual property rights of seed companies over the rights of farmers,” Bassey added. “It undermines biodiversity, displaces local varieties, and hands over control of our food system to foreign seed corporations.”
Environmental justice advocates are instead calling for a “sui generis” seed protection system that aligns with the African Model Law, which emphasizes community rights, biodiversity conservation, and food sovereignty.
Such a system, they argue, would safeguard the resilience of local food systems in the face of climate change, pest outbreaks, and market disruptions.
World Seed Day offered a timely moment for reflection. HOMEF and ERA used the occasion to honor smallholder farmers—custodians of seed diversity and frontline defenders of agroecology.
These farmers, often women, have for generations preserved, improved, and shared seeds, ensuring nutrition, climate adaptation, and cultural continuity.
“Our seeds are living heritage,” said Bassey. “Protecting them is not just an agricultural issue—it’s an ecological and ethical imperative.”
With Nigeria now bound to UPOV’s framework, HOMEF warns that the fight for seed sovereignty is far from over.
The organization pledged to continue its advocacy, strengthen alliances with farmers’ groups, and push for legal reforms that uphold the rights of communities to control their seeds—and by extension, their future.
