Implementation of Farmers’ Rights in the Italian legislation

In 2018, Centro Internazionale Crocevia, a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), conducted a policy analysis on the implementation of Farmers’ Rights in the Italian legislation. The objective was to analyse the implementation status of Article 9.3 of the ITPGRFA at national and regional level in Italy. Regional, national and European laws that regulate the ways how farmers save, use, exchange and sell seeds were considered. Gaps and differences exist in this regard between European, national and regional law; they tend to follow different rationales and objectives. In order to fully implement Farmers Rights as set out in the International Treaty, the Italian national and regional laws should be harmonized, so that the entire legislative framework is supportive to the relevant provisions of the Treaty. Lessons learned include that how ‘formal’ seed systems are currently regulated addresses the requirements of commercial agriculture; the same regulatory framework cannot be simply applied to ‘informal’ seed systems supporting peasant agriculture, unless there is a clear aim to absorb it (i.e. based on modernization policies).