NEWS FROM INDIA
1.The growing doubt over GM crops
2.Small farmers prove Bt cotton has better alternatives
3.The farmers of Vidarbha invite you to a screening of 'Cotton for my shroud'
NOTE: More on the film "Cotton for my shroud"
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article3328007.ece
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1.The growing doubt over GM crops
Neha Saigal
My Digital, December 2 2012
http://www.mydigitalfc.com/op-ed/growing-doubt-over-gm-crops-069
The importance of agriculture is no secret to the country as it is the pulse of the Indian economy and also aids in alleviating poverty. The approach paper to the 12th Five Year Plan validates this when it says that "growth in agriculture is at least two to three times more effective in reducing poverty than the same magnitude of growth emanating from non-agriculture sector". It also indicates that agriculture is an important component of faster and more inclusive sustainable growth.
Sadly, the central character of Indian agriculture, the farmer, is a pitiable picture, with the burdens of ever increasing cost of cultivation, over-dependence on industry for agricultural inputs and lack of adequate government policy support. Unfortunately for the Indian farmer, real long term sustainable solutions are a blur because the agro input industry and their cronies in the government use every opportunity to push through false solutions that are only profitable to the companies and not the farmer. One such delusional solution is the herbicide tolerant (HT) genetically modified (GM) crops marketed by multinational biotech seed companies as a one-stop shop for weed management. On the contrary, herbicide-tolerant genetically modified crops are disastrous for India's socioeconomic framework.
What are herbicide tolerant genetically modified crops? The technology of genetic modification has been deployed to create HT crops wherein the plant develops the capability to withstand herbicide without getting destroyed. For instance, in Roundup Ready GM crops (the brand name for Monsanto’s herbicide tolerant GM crops), a gene from an agrobacterium strain CP4 (CP4EPSPS), that is resistant to glyphosate (the chemical compound in Monsanto’s herbicide) is inserted. The over simplification of weed management with the promise of reduction of toxic herbicides by biotechnology companies which are into both, the business of the trait/seed and agro-chemicals, had attracted farmers in the North and South America. Thus, today, three fourths of the world’s GM crops are herbicide tolerant and most of the HT trait is incorporated into Monsanto's proprietary seed sold under the brand-name of Roundup Ready GM crops. But after 16 years of the introduction of HT crops in North and South America, horrific stories of their impacts on health and environment are emerging to the surface through stories of farmers and evidence by renowned scientists. Increased usage of herbicides like glyphosate has been associated birth defects, abnormalities in vital reproductive hormones as well as cancers. It is important for the decision makers in India to listen to these experiences, as HT crops are in various stages of open field trials in the country and there is also a push to commercialise HT GM crops.
Recently Dr Charles Benbrook, an agricultural economist based in the US, published a peer-reviewed study on the last 16 years of HT crops in the US. The evidences presented in this study are a strong reminder that HT GM crops and GM crops in general are no silver bullet for farmers and the agrarian crisis. Dr Benbrook also highlights that overall increase in the usage of glyphosate has played a huge role in altering the American landscape and biodiversity for the worse. This should be a wakeup call for some of our policy makers who believe that GM crops will be successful in India as they have worked for the farmers in the US! The experience of HT GM crops in America is also a reassertion of the fact that chemical based weed control is not a permanent solution. It is also uneconomical to eradicate all weeds as some of them are home to beneficial insects and there is a lot of value of weeds as food and fodder, a potential that has not been explored to the fullest and one that we will never be able to explore if we were to go down the HT GM crops route.
The government needs to focus on real solutions for the Indian farmer. In India, one of the biggest socioeconomic dangers of introduction of HT GM crops, unlike the US, is the loss of livelihoods of the poorest as the agri-workforce derives the largest number of employment days from the de-weeding. This was pointed out by the task-force on agricultural biotechnology set up by the government of India and headed by Dr MS Swaminathan, which recommended against HT GM crops in India as they will reduce employment opportunities of rural families. This was also strongly recommended by the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, which submitted its report on GM crops in Parliament’s last session.
Given the fact we are blessed with diverse agro-ecological and agro-climatic conditions, hand weeding integrated with other techniques like hoeing, mulching, crop rotation and managing the spacing between crops is the right way forward for weed management. In this scenario, it is best for the government to subsidise the labour component of farming and provide remunerative prices to farmers for their produce. These are the real solutions to weed-management in the country rather than using technologies like HT GM crops, which destroy employment opportunities. It is to be remembered that a large section of our small, marginal farmers and landless farmers, who form the majority of our farming population, also earn wages through farm labour like weeding. Promotion of technologies without keeping such socioeconomic realities in mind will only push this section of already distressed farmers into further misery.
Very recently, the technical expert committee (TEC) appointed by the Supreme Court of India to look into the issue of field trials of GM crops, produced their interim report with a recommendation for a moratorium on field trials of HT GM crops, until an independent committee examines and assesses their potential impacts as well as their suitability in the Indian context. The government can no longer ignore the evidence emerging nationally and internationally on HT GM crops; they must now take action not to allow them in our country and focus on real solutions. Otherwise, tall claims of inclusive development will just remain as what they are — claims.
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2.Ryots prove Bt cotton has better alternatives
V. Raghavendra
The Hindu, November 29 2012
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/ryots-prove-bt-cotton-has-better-alternatives/article4145483.ece
*RRV to grow indigenous varieties in 5,000 acres next year
Ever since the much-hyped Bt cotton started virtually invading agricultural fields in the late 90s, a vast majority of farmers have almost given up growing indigenous varieties of the "white gold". Their belief that the local species are inferior to those imported from abroad paved the way for Bt cotton to become completely dominant.
Amidst this seemingly unending monopolistic reign of Bt cotton, nearly 130 farmers owing allegiance to the District Cotton Growers’ Mutually Aided Cooperative Society and Rythu Rakshana Vedika (RRV) have proved that there are ample number of indigenous varieties which are equally high-yielding and remunerative.
These farmers took up cultivation of four to five local varieties, which were products of "public funded research" done by institutions like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University and achieved satisfactory results in terms of yield and quality.
What the cooperative society and RRV did was to motivate a group of farmers in each one of the 26 mandals where cotton was grown to experiment with the local varieties, which proved that the indigenous varieties were not so bad as to be completely discarded when compared with the hybrid (Bt) varieties.
They have since committed themselves to grow local species to maximum extent.
N. Venugopala Rao, retired professor of ANGRAU, who was instrumental in bringing over 200 farmers together to form the RRV, told The Hindu that the main reasons for success of Bt cotton were the policy framework that helped some well-known multi-national companies in gaining monopoly and the extensive publicity that made farmers believe that growing the native varieties was a waste of time and resources.
“The biggest danger of completely growing Bt cotton lies in the high possibility of losing our genetic resources to MNCs which already have a tremendous grip over the market.” The crux of the problem is the farmers’ ignorance about the need to grow at least 20 per cent non-Bt crop in a given area.
Though it’s an uphill task, the RRV has decided to grow indigenous varieties in about 5,000 acres next year.
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3.The farmers of Vidarbha invite you to a screening of "Cotton for my shroud" as part of 'Quotes from the Earth', organised by Toxics Link
on 7 December, 2012 @ 9:30 am @ India International Centre, 40, Lodi Estate, New Delhi.
The film was awarded the Rajat Kamal for the Best Investigative Film at the 59th National Awards, 2011.
It was selected for the 'Indian Panorama - 2012' and screened at the recently concluded International Film Festival of India, at Goa.
The Directors Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl will be present to introduce the film. The film screenings shall be followed by a Panel Discussion at 5:30pm.
Please forward this invitation to friends and kindred souls.
Synopsis: "Cotton for my shroud"
As companies that produced poisons for biological warfare during the cold war positioned their deadly wares as agricultural inputs, the last few decades have seen humans waging war upon themselves. The civilised world has taught people to be comfortable with this inevitable "collateral damage."
Vidarbha, in the state of Maharashtra, has become a bloody battleground in this ongoing global war between corporate greed and the people's "Right to life".
"Cotton for my shroud" investigates how Monsanto manipulated government policy, fabricated Bt Cotton field trials and enticed farmers with propaganda about yields and reduction in pesticide use.
Empty promises, escalating costs, dwindling yields, and depressed cotton prices played havoc with the cotton-growers.
Since 1995, a quarter of a million Indian farmers have committed suicide - the largest wave of recorded suicides in human history. Most of them were cotton farmers from Vidarbha.
While the state and the media label these deaths as suicide, the cotton fields of Vidarbha remain a mute witness to genocide.
"Cotton for my shroud" is not reportage. While it tries to understand from a grass-roots perspective what is driving the cotton farmers to despair, it also unsheathes the diabolical designs of multinational corporations to control seed supply. A nation that does not have food security, cannot claim to be independent. And the government is complicit in this second colonisation of India.
Narrated in the first person, the film gives us a window into the drama and despair that forms the warp and weft of life at Vidarbha.