Patenting

Companies that develop GM crops may apply for patents preventing farmers from growing the crops without payment or harvesting seed so they can grow the crop the next year. Farmers have to buy the seed each year from the companies and the concern is that those most in need of flood-resistant, high-yield, high nutritional value crops may not be able to afford it.Some organisations however, such as the International Rice Research Institute have developed 'scuba' flood-resistant rice which can survive being submerged for 2-3 weeks and still give 70-80% of the maximum yield for use by less economically developed countries and have removed patent restrictions on seed harvesting