AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PRODUCTION EFFECTS OF ADOPTING GM SEED TECHNOLOGY: THE CASE OF FARMERS IN ARGENTINA



intellectual property rights for the new seeds.17 In the following decades, succeeding
governments created diverse agencies in charge of managing the regulatory system.18 In
1973, the Military Government passed the Law No. 20247 — the “Law of Seeds.”19
This was the first piece of legislation giving commercialization rights to the inventors of
new seed varieties.20 Although this law was a step forward in protecting intellectual
property rights, it was not immediately enacted and had to wait until 1978 for its
regimentation.21 Law No. 20247 provided for the creation of the National Seed
Commission (Comision Nacional de Semillas, CONASE), in charge of advising and
evaluating government policies regarding the regulatory regime.22 Second, it created a
national registry and a property registry for new varieties, providing exclusive
commercialization rights to the owners for a term between ten and twenty years,
depending on the type of seed.23 This system of varieties registration implied a two-step
procedure: the inventor of a new variety should register the variety in the National
Variety Registry24 and then apply for a property certificate to be included in the National
Registry of Property of Varieties.25 Third, the law provided for the recognition of foreign
seeds, but it established that the country of origin should provide similar protection for
Argentine researchers. Furthermore, the term of the property rights was limited to the
number of years left in the original certification of property granted in the country of
origin of the variety.26 Fourth, the Executive Power could declare a new variety to be of

17 See id.

18 See id.

19 See Law No. 20247, Mar. 30, 1973, B.O., available at www.sagpya.mecon.gov.ar/new/0-
0/inase/pdf/Normativa/LEY-20.247.PDF
.

20 Article 22 of the law states: “The property right of a variety will be given for a period no less than 10
and no more than 20 years, according to the type of plant and the regulations.”
Id.

21 See Decree No. 1995/78, 1978, B.O.

22 The law provides:

The Commission will be formed by ten members designed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
. . . Five of the members will be State representatives, two from the National Agency of Agriculture
Control and Commercialization (Direccion Nacional de Fiscalizacion y Comercializacion), two from the
National Institute of Agriculture Technology (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria) and one
from the National Grain Board (Junta Nacional de Granos). Five other members will represent the
private sector, one from the seeders, two from the seed traders and production and two from the seed
users. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock will name the president and vice-president from the
members of the Commission.

Law No. 20247, Mar. 30, 1973, [volume] B.O. art. 5, available at www.sagpya.mecon.gov.ar/new/0-
0/inase/pdf/Normativa/LEY-20.247.PDF
.

23 See id.

24 Chapter IV of Law No. 20247 provides the regulations for the registration of new varieties in the
Registry.
See id.

25 Chapter V of Law No. 20247 provides the regulations for requesting the property of a new variety
and its registration in the National Registry.
See id.

26 Article 26 states:



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