1.Farm activist wants total ban on Bt cotton
2.Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture to visit Vidarbha
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1.Farm activist wants total ban on Bt cotton
The Times of India, March 2 2012
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Farm-activist-wants-total-ban-on-Bt-cotton/articleshow/12103619.cms

YAVATMALl: President of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) Kishor Tiwari has demanded a total ban on Bt cotton to save lives of the poor farmers in the region. He made the announcement in a crowded press conference on the eve of the Parliamentary Standing Committee's proposed visit to Yavatmal district on Friday.

The 35-member high power committee on agriculture, led by MP Basudeb Acharia, is scheduled to visit two select villages – Bham Raja and Maregaon (Sonbardi) in the district – on Friday and are expected to interact with the farmers there.

Their visit aims to look into the problems encountered by the farmers which push them towards committing suicide. They will also oversee the impact of various packages announced by the state and Central governments.

"I am worried that the administration would given in wrong feed back to the panel members and defeat the basic purpose of the visit," Tiwari said pointing out that suddenly babus have started pouring in on the eve of the committee's visit. He insisted that the panel members should interact with farmers, farm widows and their kin to understand the actual gravity of the problems encountered by them at the grass-root level. This will help the members to ascertain the grave reality, he added.

Tiwari pointed out that though the seed manufacturing and marketing companies have been claiming high yield through Bt cotton through false propaganda. But the reality is a total contrast. The agrarian crisis has worsened following total failure of Bt cotton in the rain-fed region of Vidarbha, he added.

"The panel should not become the mouth piece of the babus and the multinational seed companies," he demanded. The suicide rate in the cotton belt is escalating day by day despite all the much hyped packages introduced by the government," Tiwari pointed out. The farmers have been reiterating their demand for release of indigenous seeds, fertilizers and other agriculture inputs.

Tiwari insisted upon the need to initiate urgent steps to help revive the poor farmers. This will help in curtailing the increasing number of suicides in the region, he added.

One more suicide on the eve of panel visit

Unable to repay loan of Rs 1.5 lakh, Sunil Ganesh Vasake (37), resident of village Chachora in Ralegaon tehsil, committed suicide on Thursday afternoon, president of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) Kishor Tiwari informed.

Vasake had obtained the loan from Yavatmal Central Co-operative Bank and Central Bank of India.

Sarpanch of Bhamraja village Gavkiranbai Karpate informed that her village had witnessed 14 suicides in the past five years due to increasing debt and crop failure.

Harichand Chavan, deputy sarpanch of Sonbardi, said there have been four suicides in his village in the past five years.

The villagers have urged the panel committee members not to believe in the false feedback given by local administration and instead look into the matter judiciously.
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2.Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture to visit Vidarbha
Yogesh Pawar
Daily News & Analysis, Mar 2 2012
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_parliamentary-standing-committee-on-agriculture-to-visit-vidarbha_1657341 

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture led by its chairman Prof Ram Gopal Yadav is visiting Vidarbha on Friday to understand the impact of the Genetically Modified (GM) cotton on the country’s peasantry.

Coming close on the heels of PM Manomohan Singh's support for biotech in the agriculture sector, this visit has raised the hackles of farmers’ groups in suicide country where an average of three farmers ends their lives daily.

In an open letter to Yadav, the Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) which works closely with farmers in distress has welcomed the visit, but added, "We are sure that the first-hand look will surely help the committee in taking a position on all the issues concerning the producers, which, in turn, will aid the Parliament in formulating policies that serve the interests of the people (in this case, farmers) rather than serving a few business houses."

The letter goes on to charge, "We have witnessed that in all such previous official visits from the Planning Commission's fact finding mission in February 2005, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tour in June 2005, to several other high profile official visits, the administrative machinery hijacks the itinerary giving them only an official view of the issue," and suggests, "We hope you will also visit farmers, farm widows and activists."

The VJAS, in fact, insists the government has sufficient reasons to ban climate-sensitive crops like GM cotton which is linked to and responsible for many farmer suicides.

It has since been officially admitted by the Agriculture Ministry that dry and arid land cotton farmers who opted for Bt cotton across 40 lakh hectares are likely to lose Rs10,000 crores according to the initial estimate of crop failure by Maharashtra state government.

"It is imperative that a ban be brought with immediate effect," says Kishore Tiwari who heads VJAS.

“Unless the government does so, it is mocking the farmers who’ve died and their bereaved. Its soft pedaling the issue only confirms suspicions that the government is working in cahoots with agro MNCs aggressively pushing Bt Cotton. Its officers want to keep the issue of farmer suicides alive since they get to make to money with corruption in the compensation as has been borne out in the past."

It will be recalled that in an interview to Science magazine, the Prime Minister had said: "Biotechnology has enormous potential, and in due course of time we must make use of genetic engineering technologies to increase the productivity of our agriculture. But there are controversies. There are NGOs, often funded from the United States and the Scandinavian countries, which are not fully appreciative of the development challenges that our country faces."

Tiwari termed Maharashtra Chief Minister Prathiviraj Chavan's announcement that of a bailout package of Rs2000 crore a case of "too little, too late." He pointed out, "In 2005-2006 when Bt cotton was grown in in only 4 lakh hectares, the government compensated farmers for crop loss to the tune of Rs220 crore. By that standard this is lesser."

Bt Cotton was first approved for commercial cultivation in nine states by Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC). Now Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s has himself admitted that average yield of Bt Cotton in dry land areas of Maharashtra is only 125 kg.

"We are hoping that unlike farmers’ long-standing complaints, the Centre and State will take Pawar who is a senior member of the cabinet more seriously. Mere compensation is only first aid, actual treatment will need the uprooting of Bt Cotton which has shown a poor record consistently since 2005, completely," added Tiwari.