8General functions of Authority

(1) It shall be the duty of the Authority to promote, by such measures as it thinks fit, the encouragement for the development of new varieties of plants and to protect the rights of the farmers and breeders.

(2) In particular, and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions, the measures referred to in sub-section (1) may provide for--

(a) the registration of extant varieties subject to such terms and conditions and in the manner as may be prescribed;

(b) developing characterisation and documentation of varieties registered under this Act;

(c) documentation, indexing and cataloguing of farmers varieties;

(d) compulsory cataloguing facilities for all varieties of plants;

(e) ensuring that seeds of the varieties registered under this Act are available to the farmers and providing for compulsory licensing of such varieties if the breeder of such varieties or any other person entitled to produce such variety under this Act does not arrange for production and sale of the seed in the manner as may be prescribed;

(f) collecting statistics with regard to plant varieties, including the contribution of any person at any time in the evolution or development of any plant variety, in India or in any other country, for compilation and publication;

(g) ensuring the maintenance of the Register.