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Last week's verdict by an Indian farmers' jury rejecting GMOs and a related agricultural programme which will lead to the mass displacement of small farmers in Andhra Pradesh is now sparking a major row in the UK.

Two articles from today's Guardian:
1. Overseas aid programme attacked in GM crops row
2. 'This is the path to disaster'

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1. Overseas aid programme attacked in GM crops row
John Vidal and Luke Harding in Delhi
Saturday July 7, 2001
The Guardian

Britain's overseas aid programme in India was under attack last night by MPs, development groups, academics and local organisations after it emerged that millions are being spent backing a plan which could force 20m of the world's poorest people off the land to make way for US-style industrial agriculture and GM crops.

Britain has already spent [pounds]37m this year helping fund development in the semi-arid southern state of Andra Pradesh. Under the Vision 2020 scheme, developed by the American consultancy firm McKinsey, the state would introduce GM crops and giant US prairie-style farms which will produce food for export. Andhra Pradesh wants more than 20m farmers to leave agriculture over the next 20 years. Many of those expected to be made unemployed or landless are lower caste Dalits or "untouchables".  Despite Britain's support for the Andhra Pradesh scheme, an internal Department for International Development (Dfid) document obtained by the Guardian expresses grave reservations.

The report was written in December last year by senior DfID officials based in New Delhi. While it praises some of Vision 2020, it also complains of "major failings" in the proposal and says the implications of many of the changes have not been thought through.

"There is nothing about providing alternative income for those displaced," it notes. It also remarks on the "negative consequences on food security" for the poor if the state's programme of industrialisation is carried out.

A DfID spokesman yesterday said no British aid money was being used directly to fund GM crops in India.

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2. 'This is the path to disaster'
Clare Short is in the hot seat for funding GM crops in India
Luke Harding in New Delhi and John Vidal
Saturday July 7, 2001
The Guardian

Clare Short, the international development secretary, came under fire last night for her department's backing of a controversial scheme in India which campaigners fear will lead to the displacement of millions of poor rural labourers and the extensive introduction of GM crops.

Up to 20m agricultural workers - many of them lower-caste Dalits, or "untouchables" - could be forced off their land by Vision 2020, a scheme proposed by the state of Andhra Pradesh and backed by Ms Short's department, it is claimed.

The semi-arid state in southern India is to encourage farmers to plant GM crops, including Bt cotton and vitamin A rice. It is setting up a 600 sq km (384 square mile) Genome Valley, where biotechnology companies such as Monsanto will be invited to carry out trials.

"At a time when Britain has put a moratorium on the commercial use of GM crops, it seems hypocritical to endorse their use among some of the poorest people in India," Tom Wakeford, of Sussex University's development studies institute, said last night. "Nobody is listening to what the poor want."

Ms Short's Department for International Development (DfID) has agreed to give Andhra Pradesh more than half of Britain's [pounds]105m aid allocation this year to India: it has already received [pounds]37m.

Much of the money has been spent on overhauling the region's crumbling infrastructure to implement the project.

Campaigners fear, if the scheme goes ahead, millions of small farmers and labourers will be forced to migrate to the cities in search of work. The government - under its pioneering chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu - wants to reduce the number of people employed in agriculture from 70% to 40% in the next 20 years.

Large corporations will be invited to take over farming, with the creation of prairie-style fields similar to those in East Anglia or the American mid-west. Jobs such as weeding - done by poor migrant labourers - will disappear with the introduction of hi-tech machinery and chemicals.

Legislation protecting indebted small farmers has been abolished.

Incentives will be offered to persuade farmers to abandon traditional crops, such as millet, and replace them with crops grown for export.The Vision 2020 document, written by the American consultancy firm McKinsey, makes no mention of the traditional use of livestock.

An internal DfID document obtained by the Guardian expressed grave reservations about the scheme. It describes it as "confused", "unfocussed," and "inconsistent". Almost no provisions, it said, had been made to find alternative employment for farming's poor labourers.

"I strongly feel that the British government should stop funding this kind of programme," said PV Satheesh, of the Andhra Pradesh Coalition in Defence of Diversity. "I'm also surprised that this has been done because DfID has a reputation in India as an enlightened donor."

"This is the path to disaster."

Last week, a "citizens' jury" of small farmers from across Andhra Pradesh, one of India's biggest states, rejected the British-backed scheme.

After a five-day meeting addressed by government, corporations, development groups and others, they unanimously rejected contract farming and GM crops, saying they wanted to control their own land and forests. They also called for the preservation of "healthy soils", "diverse crops", and "indigenous knowledge".

"This was an innovative process in which local voices gave their views on food and farming. Donors such as DfID and the World Bank need to base their policies on such direct democracy," Michel Pimbert of the International Institute for Environment and Development in London said last night.

In a visit to New Delhi in January, Ms Short announced that Britain would triple its aid commitment to India in the next three to four years.

Britain gives more aid to India than to any other country, but it is only sent to four Indian states - Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa.

The DfID also acknowledges that severe environmental problems in India are caused by land degradation, increasing energy use and declining water quality, all widely associated with the kind of industrial-scale agriculture proposed in the Andhra Pradesh plan.

Opposition to GM crops and industrial-scale farming in India is high. Many organisations, representing millions of small farmers, are deeply opposed to the introduction of GM technology which, they argue, will force them off the land or drive them deeper into debt. In the past few years thousands of farmers have committed suicide because of rising debts.

Monsanto, the largest foreign-owned agri-business company in India, has recently bought several of its largest seed companies and is eager to start GM production there as soon as possible.

Last month India's ministry of environment and forests was forced by a regulatory committee's demand for further tests to defer a decision on the commercial planting of GM cotton until next year.

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Andhra Pradesh farmers put World Bank/DFID on trial. Read Tom Wakeford's intro at: http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/indfarm.htm