NEWS FROM INDIA
1.Untangling India's Bt cotton fraud – Latha Jishnu
2.Gandhi's Martyrdom day celebrated with a thought for safe food – Pari Trivedi
3.Monsanto and news as product placement – Chandrahas Choudhury
4.Industry meeting on GM crops for food security – Business Line
5.From food security to food justice – Ananya Mukherjee

NOTE: Some must read pieces here.

EXTRACTS: What is surprising is why the elite Bikaneri Narma, a popular variety cultivated in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, should have failed so badly when it was genetically modified. Although farmers cultivating the BN Bt and Bt NHH 44 for Mahabeej reported abysmally low yields, the ICAR meeting of December 2009 surmised that the poor performance was "due to inappropriate management practices". [item 1]

"...the BRAI bill is anti-Gandhi in nature and against the Swaraj [self-rule] movement as the bill will ensure that the foreign biotech companies shall gain a monopoly over our local agriculture..." [item 2]

"Some 100,000 women practise organic farming and more wish to. Kudumbashree farmers speak passionately about preventing ecological devastation through alternative farming methods." [item 5]
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1.Untangling India's Bt cotton fraud
Latha Jishnu
Down To Earth, Issue: Feb 15, 2012
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/untangling-india-s-bt-cotton-fraud

*ICAR's top research institutes and GEAC exposed in Bt cotton research scam

WHEN the much-awaited public sector Bt or genetically modified (GM) cotton was released for cultivation in 2009, there was celebration in the scientific establishment. And in the farming community Bikaneri Narma (BN Bt) was trumpeted as India's "completely indigenous Bt variety" and farmers were looking forward to cheaper cotton seeds. There was an added advantage to BN Bt: unlike the Bt hybrids of private companies the Bt variety could be reused by cultivators. Along with the variety, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) also released the Bt NHH 44 hybrid.

That euphoria was short-lived because the seeds were withdrawn from the market after the first season. The reasons given at the time were poor performance of the seed and reports of "contamination". There was also speculation at the time of sabotage. Now, almost two years down the line the full details of the unsavoury episode have emerged and, according to old ICAR hands, this is possibly the biggest research scandal involving as it does the Indian Agriculture Research Institute’s prestigious National Research Centre for Plant Biotechnology (NRCPB).

Along with NRCPB, whose director Polumetla Ananda Kumar supplied the unique Cry1Ac gene construct for the project, a premier academic institution, the University of Agricultural Sciences-Dharwad (UAS-D), is at the heart of this scandal. What the episode reveals is the hubris of some of the scientists involved in the project, the lack of scientific rigour in ICAR to understand the complexities of such a project and, worst of all, the conflict of interest between crop developers and the regulator, the Genetic Engineering Approval (now changed to Appraisal) Committee (GEAC). Also exposed is the GEAC’s lax scrutiny of data submitted by crop developers. Tainted, too, by association is the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, which conducted the field trials and was given the task of commercialising the Bt seeds.

It transpires that the primary reason why these seeds were pulled back was the widespread presence of MON 531, the genetic event that is the intellectual property (IP) of global agrobiotech giant Monsanto, instead of the BNLA 106 event claimed by the authors. MON 531 is the most widely used event in the hybrids sold in the Indian market. The BNLA 106 event was developed by UAS-D and NRCPB under ICAR's generously funded National Agricultural Technology Project. Event here means the site of integration of the Bt gene at a fixed location on the chromosome of the plant.

Documents available with Down To Earth (DTE) reveal that ICAR repeatedly glossed over complaints of poor performance and "contamination" of the seeds. Instead, there appears to have been an unseemly rush to take the seed to marketand with disastrous consequences. 

The genesis of ICAR's ambitions to launch its GM cotton started more than a decade ago when Ishwarappa S Katageri of UAS-D developed the variety using a truncated Cry1Ac gene construct given by Ananda Kumar. This gene construct was reportedly "borrowed" from Illimar Altosaar, director, Agricultural Biotechnology Laboratories at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Altosaar is described by the university as "a world-renowned expert on plant biology and GM organisms". 

The first time that research on this project was made public was at World Cotton Research Conference in Lubbock, Texas, in September 2007. That paper, Genetic Transformation of an Elite Indian Genotype of Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) for Insect Resistance, was presented by Katageri, the lead author. The other authors were H M Vamadevaiah (also from UAS-D), Basavaraj M Khadi (also from UAS-D who served as director of CICR from 2005 to 2008) and Ananda Kumar. The paper was published with same title in Current Science in December 2007.

The key issue that is being debated is how and where the "contamination” took place. But many scientists pooh-pooh the theory of contamination. They point out that Monsanto’s gene Cry1Ac could have appeared in National Agriculture Technology Project either inadvertently or through deliberate fraud. Inadvertent contamination could occur through cross-pollination by honeybees from Monsanto's Bt hybrids into any variety and result in the presence of just one to five per cent Monsanto’s gene/event in the seeds. This is because cotton pollen is heavy and sticky and wind-borne pollination is reportedly low.

In the case of a fraud, breeders could have usedor have been givenany of Monsanto's Bt hybrids in their programme to transfer the gene/event into any variety through simple plant breeding techniques. In tests conducted by ICAR in 2008 all the BN Bt seeds tested contained MON 531. Even as early as May 2005, results indicated that all the samples possible contained a full length Cry1Ac gene and the probability of the presence of MON 531 event in the material used, according to review undertaken by ICAR.

Khadi was told of this result in August 2005. Thereafter, BN Bt was field tested with all the material and seeds coming from UAS-D. Thereafter biosafety reports and field data was submitted to GEAC and approved for commercial cultivation on May 2, 2008. Khadi was then a member of GEAC and had pushed for approval. Two days later, Khadi sent 10 seeds to the Bt referral laboratory which confirmed presence of MON 531 in eight of the samples on May 5, although Avasthagen, a Bengaluru-based biotech company, said there was no such contamination in any of the samples.

At an urgent meeting convened by P L Gautam, then deputy director-general (crop sciences), ICAR, on May 21, the results were discussed with all those involved in the project. Although some of the participating scientists pointed out that Avasthagen data was flawed and urged that a third opinion be sought to reconfirm the event, the project directors insisted the UAS-D event was unique and different from that of other known Bt transgene events. Minutes of the meeting reveal that Gautam took the view that the presence of MON 531 was not an issue because of the evidence provided by Kumar. He then directed CICR to take forward the commercialisation of BN Bt and Bt NHH 44 "with full zeal".

UAS-D, accordingly, took up seed production and only by the original breeders. They produced 24,900 kg of BN Bt and 1,500 kg of Bt NHH 44, which was distributed to Mahabeej, the Maharashtra state-owned seed corporation, for multiplication. However, farmers growing these seeds for Mahabeej began complaining of poor performancethe yield was half to a quarter of the normaland lack of purity of trait. These reports were checked by six independent teams from CICR. At an emergency meeting called by the Maharashtra government in October 2009 to institute remedial measures, Katageri convinced the officials that the BNLA 106 event had been tested and re-tested, with molecular analysis being carried out by NRCPB. But, finally, at December 2009 meeting chaired by Swapan Kumar Datta, deputy director-general (crop sciences), ICAR, it was decided to immediately suspend production and sale of the BN Bt seeds.

What is surprising is why the elite Bikaneri Narma, a popular variety cultivated in Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, should have failed so badly when it was genetically modified. Although farmers cultivating the BN Bt and Bt NHH 44 for Mahabeej reported abysmally low yields, the ICAR meeting of December 2009 surmised that the poor performance was "due to inappropriate management practices".

Despite repeated mails and calls, ICAR chief S Ayyappan did not respond to questions from DTE about the action taken in such a serious case or if a fresh inquiry was under way. Ayyappan only took over as ICAR director-general on January 1, 2010, from Mangala Rai who served till December 31, 2009. Nor were the scientists involved in this fiasco Khadi, Katageri or Kumarwilling to comment on the issue. Two of them said an inquiry was under way and it would not be proper to talk about the matter. Even Keshav Kranthi, who was acting director, CICR, when it packed the seeds received from UAS-D and despatched them to various seed multipliers, refused to comment on the issue.
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2.Gandhi's Martyrdom day celebrated with a thought for safe food
via Pari Trivedi of Greenpeace India

New Delhi, 30 January 2012: On the martyrdom anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Delhiites gathered at Dilli Haat to reflect on his philosophy of Swaraj and safe food. In the wake of the growing unrest about Genetically Modified (GM) crops and the issues surrounding the controversial Biotechnology Authority of India (BRAI) Bill, a street-play was performed at the venue that looked into the dangerous implications of GM CROPS if the BRAI bill is introduced in the parliament this time.

The event also saw eminent food activist, Ajay Mahajan from Beej Bachao Andolan take the centre and discuss the issue of safe food with the concerned citizens.  He opined that "the BRAI bill is anti-Gandhi in nature and against the Swaraj movement as the bill will ensure that the foreign biotech companies shall gain a monopoly over our local agriculture if passed in the parliament." The speech was followed by the display of a massive public art that read 'We say NO to BRAI bill'.

To protect the food safety and biodiversity of the country, Greenpeace believes that the government should stop the tabling of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill 2011 (Draft), which will form a single-clearance window for GM crops in India and instead promote sustainable, ecological agriculture.
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3.Monsanto and news as product placement
Extract from an essay by the novelist Chandrahas Choudhury: India's Top Newspapers Battle for Readers' Hearts and Souls
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/india-s-top-newspapers-battle-for-readers-hearts-and-souls-choudhury.html   [showing as error, which apparently works now]

...it's hard to escape the impression, reading the Times, that debate on issues of great importance is being skewed by interests that have the money to do so, and can buy credibility through the mass medium of a respected newspaper. A case in point is a recent full-page story that the Times ran on Aug. 28, 2011 about the Indian arm of the multinational biotechnology company Monsanto Co.

I came across this story on that day while in the south Indian city of Bangalore, on page 13 of the local edition of the Times. Called "Reaping Gold through Bt Cotton," the report by a correspondent, Snehlata Shrivastav, addressed in a few slack, airy paragraphs the complex and controversial issue of farmer suicides in the cotton-growing districts of the Indian state of Maharashtra, and their alleged relationship to economic distress caused by the use of BT cotton seeds, a strain sold in India by Monsanto. The article began:

Yavatmal district is known as the Suicide Capital of the state [of Maharashtra], but two villages – Bhambraja and Antargaon – are an aberration for the better. Not a single person from the two villages has committed suicide. So much so, several families have shut the door on private moneylenders and started side business. The turnaround has been brought about by BT Cotton, Snehlata Shrivastav finds out.

The piece ended with the blithe disclosure, which would trouble any serious journalist, that "The trip to Yavatmal was arranged by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech." Further evidence of conflict of interest was supplied at the bottom of a box accompanying the text. The box provided pen-portraits and photographs of farmers and families from Yavatmal who had become prosperous through the use of BT seeds, but ended with the admission that this story had appeared in an earlier edition of The Times in Nagpur, on Oct. 31, 2008, almost three years before.

What might have happened to the farmers in the time between October 2008 and August 2011? The Times wasn't interested in knowing. Or, as Akash Kapur wrote in a recent piece in the New York Times, "In India, sometimes news is just a product placement."
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4.Meet on biotech crops for food security
Business Line, Jan 31 2012 [shortened]
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/agri-biz/article2848140.ece

Hyderabad: Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) and the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) will hold a conference on ‘Biotechnology crops for food security in India' in February 27 in Bangalore.
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5.From food security to food justice
Ananya Mukherjee
The Hindu, 1 February 2012
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2848305.ece

*A quarter of a million women in Kerala are showing us how to earn livelihoods with dignity.

If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest almost the size of Indonesia. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 237.7 million Indians are currently undernourished (up from 224.6 million in 2008). And it is far worse if we use the minimal calorie intake norms accepted officially in India. By those counts (2200 rural/2100 urban), the number of Indians who cannot afford the daily minimum could equal the entire population of Europe.

Yet, the Indian elite shrieks at the prospect of formalising a universal right to food. Notwithstanding the collective moral deficit this reveals, it also shows that the millions of Indians whose food rights are so flagrantly violated are completely voiceless in the policy space. India's problem is not only to secure food, but to secure food justice.

What can food justice practically mean? First, to prevent situations where grains rot while people die a very basic principle of distributive justice. But it has to mean a lot more: people must have the right to produce food with dignity, have control over the parameters of production, get just value for their labour and their produce. Mainstream notions of food security ignore this dimension.

Food justice must entail both production and distribution. Its fundamental premise must be that governments have a non-negotiable obligation to address food insecurity. They must also address the structural factors that engender that insecurity. Most governments, however, appear neither willing nor able to deliver food justice. It needs therefore the devolution of power and resources to the local level, where millions of protagonists, with their knowledge of local needs and situations, can create a just food economy.

Collective struggle

This is not quite as utopian as it may sound. 

Something on these lines has been unfolding in Kerala a collective struggle of close to a quarter million women who are farming nearly 10 million acres of land. The experiment, "Sangha Krishi," or group farming, is part of Kerala's anti-poverty programme "Kudumbashree." Initiated in 2007, it was seen as a means to enhance local food production. Kerala's women embraced this vision enthusiastically. As many as 44, 225 collectives of women farmers have sprung up across the State. These collectives lease fallow land, rejuvenate it, farm it and then either sell the produce or use it for consumption, depending on the needs of members. On an average, Kudumbashree farmers earn Rs.15,000-25,000 per year (sometimes higher, depending on the crops and the number of yields annually).

Kudumbashree is a network of 4 million women, mostly below the poverty line. It is not a mere 'project' or a 'programme' but a social space where marginalised women can collectively pursue their needs and aspirations. The primary unit of Kudumbashree is the neighbourhood group (NHG). Each NHG consists of 10-20 women; for an overwhelming majority, the NHG is their first ever space outside the home. NHGs are federated into an Area Development Society (ADS) and these are in turn federated into Community Development Societies (CDSs) at the panchayat level. Today, there are 213,000 NHGs all over Kerala. Kudumbashree office-bearers are elected, a crucial process for its members. "We are poor. We don't have money or connections to get elected only our service," is a common refrain. These elections bring women into politics. And they bring with them a different set of values that can change politics.

The NHG is very different from a self-help group (SHG) in that it is structurally linked to the State (through the institutions of local self-government). This ensures that local development reflects the needs and aspirations of communities, who are not reduced to mere "executors" of government programmes. What is sought is a synergy between democratisation and poverty reduction; with Kudumbashree, this occurs through the mobilisation of poor women's leadership and solidarity. "Sangha Krishi" or group farming is just one example of how this works. It is transforming the socio-political space that women inhabit who in turn transform that space in vital ways.

This experiment is having three major consequences.

First, there is a palpable shift in the role of women in Kerala's agriculture. This was earlier limited to daily wage work in plantations at wages much lower than those earned by men. Thousands of Kudumbashree women hitherto underpaid agricultural labourers have abandoned wage work to become independent producers. Many others combine wage work with farming. With independent production comes control over one's time and labour, over crops and production methods and, most significantly, over the produce. Since the farmers are primarily poor women, they often decide to use a part of their produce to meet their own needs, rather than selling it. Every group takes this decision democratically, depending on levels of food insecurity of their members. In Idukki, where the terrain prevents easy market access and food insecurity is higher, farmers take more of their produce home as opposed to Thiruvananthapuram where market access is better and returns are higher.

Sangha Krishi

Second, "Sangha Krishi" has enabled women to salvage their dignity and livelihoods amidst immense adversity. Take the story of Subaida in Malappuram. Once widowed and once deserted, with three young children, she found no means of survival other than cleaning dead bodies. Hardly adequate as a livelihood, it also brought her unbearable social ostracism. Now Subaida is a proud member of a farming collective and wants to enter politics. In the nine districts this writer visited, there was a visible, passionate commitment to social inclusion amongst Kudumbashree farmers.

Our survey of 100 collectives across 14 districts found that 15 per cent of the farmers were Dalits and Adivasis and 32 per cent came from the minority communities.

Third, "Sangha Krishi" is producing important consequences for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Kerala. Because of Kerala's high wages for men, the MGNREGS in Kerala has become predominantly a space for women (93 per cent of the employment generated has gone to women where the national average is 50). From the beginning, synergies were sought between the MGNREGS, the People's Plan and Kudumbashree. Kudumbashree farmers strongly feel this has transformed MGNREGS work.

"We have created life ”¦ and food, which gives life, not just 100 days of manual labour," said a Perambra farmer. In Perambra, Kudumbashree women, working with the panchayat, have rejuvenated 140 acres that lay fallow for 26 years. It now grows rice, vegetables and tapioca. Farmers also receive two special incentives an 'area incentive' for developing land and a 'production incentive' for achieving certain levels of productivity. These amounted to over Rs.200 million in 2009-10. They were combined with subsidised loans from banks and the State, and seeds, input and equipment from Krishi Bhavan and the panchayats.

Challenges

However, serious challenges remain. Kudumbashree farmers are predominantly landless women working on leased land; there is no certainty of tenure. Lack of ownership also restricts access to credit, since they cannot offer formal guarantees on the land they farm. Whenever possible, Kudumbashree collectives have started buying land to overcome this uncertainty. But an alternative institutional solution is clearly needed. It is also difficult for women to access resources and technical know-how the relevant institutions (such as crop committees) are oriented towards male farmers. There is also no mechanism of risk insurance.

Is this a sustainable, replicable model of food security? It is certainly one worth serious analysis. 

First, this concerted effort to encourage agriculture is occurring when farmers elsewhere are forced to exit farming in large numbers. It re-connects food security to livelihoods, as any serious food policy must. But more importantly, the value of Sangha Krishi lies in that it has become the manifestation of a deep-rooted consciousness about food justice amongst Kerala's women. Kannyama, the president of Idamalakudy, Kerala's first tribal panchayat, says she wants to make her community entirely self-sufficient in food. She wants Sangha Krishi produce to feed every school and anganwadi in her panchayat to ensure that children get local, chemical-free food. Elsewhere, Kudumbashree farmers plan to protest the commercialisation of land. Even in the tough terrain of Idukki's Vathikudy panchayat, women were taking a census of fallow land in the area that they could cultivate. Some 100,000 women practise organic farming and more wish to. Kudumbashree farmers speak passionate
ly about
preventing ecological devastation through alternative farming methods.

In the world of Sangha Krishi, food is a reflection of social relations. And only new social relations of food, not political manoeuvres, can combat the twin violence of hunger and injustice.

(Ananya Mukherjee is Professor and Chair of Political Science at York University, Toronto. Her latest work is a co-edited volume in collaboration with UNRISD, Geneva (Business Regulation and Non-state actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development? Routledge Studies in Development Economics, 2012.))