generis system that developed from TRIPS Article 27.3b. One such concept is farmers' rights which developed under the FAO's International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).
     The ESAP has shown examples of civil society-led initia­tives to evolve a specific system of intellectual rights protec­tion for traditional knowledge and resources. Indian civil society organizations have pioneered the concept and prac­tice of Community Registry involving the documentation and formal local registration of community knowledge sys­tems and resources (Khor, 2004). The Community Registry model is replicated in Nepal by a formal institution which has expanded the model beyond AKST and covered tradi­tional knowledge and resources in such areas as forestry. The model has been widely replicated and has since evolved in other parts of ESAP, such as Bangladesh, Thailand and the Philippines. There are also ongoing efforts that attempt to combine useful and workable traits of the conventional IPR regime while at the same time exploring the potentials of alternative systems of intellectual rights protection. Other efforts involve the extension of the provisions on geographic indication provided in the TRIPS to agriculture as a system of protecting traditional and conventional AKST. These na­tional initiatives may be considered as "hybrid" IPR since they assert the rights of communities over specific AKST and products of AKST by maximizing the opportunities avail­able in the current IPR regime.

5.8      Trade and Markets

5.8.1      Domestic regional markets and trade
The  importance   of trade  in  discussions   of technologi­cal change lies in the relationship between efficiency and/ or productivity change and export growth and vice versa. On the one hand the productivity gap between economies is posited as the basis for international trade, while on the other hand there is a contention that trade liberalization will enhance factor productivity. This debate has important implications for agricultural modernization, tariff policies and technological priorities. Economic arguments can be mustered to support causality in either direction. Further liberalization of world trade could improve the efficiency of the agricultural sector for countries which enter agricultural export markets for the first time. However, only in very few countries does increased productivity trigger sustained ex­port growth (Arnade and Vasavada, 1995; Suhariyanto and Thirtle, 2001).
     The ESAP region's development over the last two de­cades has been closely linked to economic reforms and trade opportunities. The policy reforms have been triggered by many changes or crises which have affected domestic mar­kets as well as regional and international trade patterns. Additionally, transport and related infrastructure as well as non-transport logistics and market arrangements can influence how these economies react to policy changes. It has been estimated that in East Asia non-transport logistics impose heavier trade penalties than do transport inadequa­cies and that domestic market arrangements can constrain diversification and impede international trade (Carruthers, 2003). Thus, the pattern of development so far experienced in the region is dependent on continuing improvements in

transport, storage, distribution and processing. The preva­lence and quality of non-market measures which charac­terize the region's trade will also determine the nature and direction of its growth.
     Although there remain marked differences in the pol­icy regimes across the region, one factor that will influence ESAP's future policies and trade patterns is liberalization. China and Vietnam are in the process of opening their economies in response to their new WTO obligations. The liberalization which has already taken place in the region has been contemporaneous with both increased food pro­duction and greater food availability. In that sense at least, the liberalization strategy may be said to have worked so far. Nonetheless, food availability remains a major problem for hundreds of millions in the region and in such circum­stances the dependence on an international market entails risks. Consequently, there is a need for public intervention by governments to address the risk of variations in avail­ability, chronic poverty and household food insecurity. The policies undertaken in pursuit of these ends often compound the original problems; one study of the China grain market, for example, concluded that Government action destabi­lized rather than abetted the market. Since such action is costly and often leads to scarcity and food insecurity the search for more stable policies will be a feature of future action (Findlay, 2003).
     Liberalization has itself contributed to extensive di­versification of production away from the "old order" of growing and marketing cereal crops in a subsistence farm­ing system. There has been considerable diversification of the region's production, stimulated by trade in high value commodities, particularly in horticulture for urban and periurban areas (rather than in the hinterlands and near-urban areas). This trend, the extent and impact of which differ across the region, is expected to continue in response to increasing urbanization, rising per capita incomes, fur­ther trade liberalization and supporting strategies and the removal of restrictions on foreign direct investment in the food sector.
     Other developments with important implications for the region's future are changes in lifestyles, rapid changes in dietary preferences from cereal-based to high-value com­modities and dramatic growth (10-90% in recent years) in the number of supermarkets and other food retail shops. The rate of growth of food through supermarkets varied from 5% in Bangladesh and similar low income states to 50% in others such as Thailand and the Philippines (Bayes, 2005).
     The removal of restrictions on foreign direct investment in the food sector has been associated with important insti­tutional changes. These have resulted in new developments involving bilateral cooperation in the reorganization of the supply chain in some states such as China. Such restructur­ing will continue to be critical if the potential of the various states and their endowments is to be fully exploited without income and food crises. In the process of this regional di­versification and cross-border investment, China has been shifting production from grains, cotton and sugar to more labor-intensive crops such as fruit and vegetables in which it would appear to have a comparative advantage and is im­porting Thai cassava, logans durians and prawns. The spe-