Ahmedabad: On Thursday, a spokesperson of PepsiCo told news agency Reuters that American multinational company PepsiCo withdrew lawsuit that it filed against four Indian farmers for using its patented seeds to grow potatoes without prior permission. "After discussions with the government, the company has agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmers,". PepsiCo filed a suit against four farmers of North Gujarat in a commercial court in Ahmedabad for allegedly growing a variety of potatoes for which the company has claimed plant variety protection (PVP) rights and sought damages of as much as Rs 1 crore from each of them. The company on April 27 had said that it would make an out-of-court settlement with the potato farmers in Gujarat.
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"To safeguard the larger interest of farmers, PepsiCo India was compelled to take judicial recourse to protect its registered variety. PepsiCo from the very start had also offered an amicable settlement to farmers," the company said in a statement. It had held that it obtained PVP rights over the potato variety under the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right (PPVFR) Act, 2001.
Her it is to be noted that PepsiCo accused the farmers were violating its rights over the seed variety. The Gujarat government backed the potato farmers. Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Sunday stated that the government had decided to join as a party in the lawsuits filed by the company. North Gujarat has come to represent the potato bowl of the country producing more than 33 lakh tonnes from 1.21 lakh hectares.