Leading farmers organisations and NGOs in the state have called upon the state government to protect the rights of farmers who according to them are being hounded by multinational companies through a slew of litigations pertaining to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). It should be noted that the so far nine cases of potato farmers being sued by PepsiCo for use of FC5 variety of potato has come out in Gujarat. In Gujarat potato is mostly cultivated in Deesa in Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Aravalli districts. They said that the companies were using litigations to threaten farmers who under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act have been provided an exception. Hemang Bakshi, an IPR expert who specialises in seeds said that the variety of potato for which the company has claimed IPR violation, it was given rights to it under the variety of common knowledge. Moreover, the act clearly states that a farmer shall be deemed to be entitled to save, use, sow , resow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce include seed of a variety protected under this act, said Bakshi. He said when the act was being planned, farmers organisations had raised the prospect of companies hounding farmers for using their varieties and that is why the exception was given. "Farmers in our country buy the seeds from traders. They do not know about the history of the seeds or who produce it. It is like you some company gets a patent for a product. Someone else makes a product from the patent and the original company tries to sue to the customer of the second company instead of the company itsel," said Bakshi. The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) has written to the Gujarat government to intervene in the matter. They also want the state to bring pressure on the company to withdraw the case. "The state should also put out a public statement explaining the farmers rights as enshrined in the PPV&FR Act," said Kapil Shah of Jatan that promotes organic farming in the case The BKS and other organisations said the company got the right to the variety in 2016 while it has been selling it to farmers since 2009. The company only accepts the potatoes that fit a certain size. The others are left with the farmers who are going to grow them the next year or sell it in the local mandi. "If a farmer produces 100 potatoes and the company buys just 40 then what do you expect the farmer to do with the rest of the 60? He is going to sell it to whoever is willing to buy it or use it to grow the next lot of crop," said Shah of Jatan. What is the case about The US food and beverage giant PepsiCo had sued three farmers for growing a variety of potato to which it had the exclusive rights. The potatoes are used by the MNC to produce potato chips.

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