Question

Instructions: Read the following passage and answer the question based on it.

TRIPs agreement provides a comprehensive set of global trade rules for the protection of copyright, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets, semiconductor layout designs, and geographical indications, that apply to all member countries irrespective of their levels of development, natural and human endowments and history. Every member country has been asked by the WTO to amend its national patent law to conform to that universal globalized format for legislation relating to pharmaceutical, agrochemical, food, alloys, etc. Under Article 65, the developed countries have been asked to change their laws within another five years, and the less developed countries within an additional five years. The least developed countries have been asked to make those changes by 2005 AD.

This attempt at global standardisation and uniformity by way of the TRIPs agreement is in conflict with the main thrust of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that set out the conditions for sustainable development. These two reveal two contrasting types of international approaches and norms. While the 1992 Earth Summit and the 1993 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) focused on 'diversity' as being fundamental to sustain life and development, TRIPs and WTO are pushing for 'conformity' to international standardized norms on patents, services, labour, investment and what not, irrespective of their history, ecology, level of economic development, etc. But despite their diametrically opposed viewpoints, 170 countries signed CBD upholding the need for diversity, and 50 countries signed the TRIPs agreement in 1994 claiming the urgency of uniformity, with a very large element of common signatories (130) in both.

The Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), in its Article 16.5, specifically asserts that intellectual property rights must not be in conflict with conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, a provision that has been totally ignored by those who composed the TRIPs agreement. While in the case of agriculture the higher yield of patented products induces farmers to switch from a more varied production pattern, the resulting narrowing of the genetic base makes the economy and society more vulnerable to plant disease and epidemics. It is true that the move towards cultivation of a smaller number of higher yielding varieties and the uniform spread of the same variety over a large space predates the present debate on patents, particularly since the introduction of green revolution technology in the mid-sixties, but there can be no doubt that the latter has brought about a qualitative change in the scenario and has created the possibility of a vast quantitative change too in that direction. So far no attempt has been made to reconcile the two conflicting approaches of CBD and TRIPs. If diversity is so important for sustaining life, how can WTO demand conformity to standardised global formats?

According to the author, a higher-yield seed variety is not always welcome as it also ultimately leads to

• A. diseases among the consumers.
• B. diseases among the plants.
• C. monopoly of developed countries.
• D. monopoly of developing countries.

Hint:

Follow the passage's chain: higher yield seeds reduce crop variety, which narrows the genetic base and raises disease risk in the crop itself.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

Step 1: Understanding the Question:
We need to find what the author says is the downside of higher yield, patented seed varieties.

Step 2: Key Formula or Approach:
Find the specific sentence in the passage that describes the consequence of switching to higher yield varieties, and read it literally rather than inferring an unstated consequence.

Step 3: Detailed Explanation:
The passage says that the higher yield of patented products pushes farmers to move away from a varied production pattern towards fewer, more uniform crop varieties. It then states directly that this narrowing of the genetic base makes the economy and society more vulnerable to plant disease and epidemics.
The chain of cause and effect is: higher yield seeds, then fewer crop varieties grown, then a narrower genetic base, then greater vulnerability to disease among the crops themselves, since a uniform crop population has no natural genetic variation to resist a disease that targets it.

Step 4: Final Answer:
Option A is wrong because the passage talks about disease risk to the plants, not to the people eating them. Options C and D are wrong because monopoly of developed or developing countries is never mentioned as a consequence in this part of the passage. The passage is specific that the risk lands on the plants themselves, which is option B.
\[ \boxed{\text{Option B: diseases among the plants}} \]