Critical to sustainable agriculture, agrobiodiversity conservation provides immediate benefits and retains options for climate change adaptation. Reframing conservation as sustainable seed innovation allows for a dynamic view of farmer contributions. Sustainable seed innovation entails in situ conservation and the innovation of new plant varieties through traditional practices. Farmer interviews from regions throughout India form the empirical basis, while the concept intellectual property-broad, integrated with evolutionary economics, informs theory. Sustainable seed innovation within India receives support primarily from nonprofit groups favoring open-source systems. Conserving natural and financial capital motivated farmers to adopt sustainable techniques, but farmers believed attracting additional innovators required development of new markets. India’s Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act recognizes farmers as plant breeders but does not provide incentive to innovate sustainably. Moreover, agricultural policies reinforced by an underlying discourse where “progressive” farmers follow unsustainable practices incentivizes formal innovations, at the expense of sustainable innovations of farmers.

中文翻译：

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支持可持续创新：印度农民农业生物多样性保护研究

农业生物多样性保护对可持续农业至关重要，可提供直接利益并保留适应气候变化的选择。将保护重新定义为可持续的种子创新，可以动态地看待农民的贡献。可持续种子创新需要就地保护和通过传统做法创新植物新品种。来自印度各地的农民访谈形成了实证基础，而广泛的知识产权概念与进化经济学相结合，为理论提供了信息。印度的可持续种子创新主要得到支持开源系统的非营利组织的支持。保护自然和金融资本促使农民采用可持续技术，但农民认为吸引更多创新者需要开发新市场。印度的植物品种保护和农民权利法案承认农民是植物育种者，但没有提供可持续创新的激励措施。此外，“进步的”农民遵循不可持续的做法的潜在话语强化了农业政策，以激励正式创新，以牺牲农民的可持续创新为代价。