TPP may cause Malaysian farmers to lose rights, claim activist groups

File pic of a rice farmer in Tanjung Karang.

PETALING JAYA: Activist groups are claiming that Malaysian small farmers could lose out under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as seed companies stand to benefit from longer monopolies.

One of the conditions under the TPP is that member countries are required to join the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants 1991 (UPOV91), which Malaysia is not a member of.