The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) in collaboration with the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho, will host a symposium on plant variety protection under the theme “Nurturing Agricultural Innovation: Advancing the Protection of New Plant Varieties for Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Africa”. The event will bring together delegates from national Intellectual Property (IP) Offices, Cooperating Partners, Research and Academic Institutions, the Private Sector, IP Practitioners and Agents, Plant Breeder Associations and officials from Member State Ministries responsible for Agriculture and related technical departments/agencies.

The programme will spotlight the Plant Variety Protection (PVP) system as a catalyst for agricultural development, strengthening plant breeding through incentives and legal safeguards, enabling partnerships across the crop value chain, and advancing the ratification and implementation of the Arusha Protocol in alignment with member states’ laws and the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) Convention.