Prime Minister ignores the facts. Openly bats for dangerously risky GM crop technology.

In the 20 years since the first GM crops was introduced in US, there is a spurt in diseases. There is certainly no evidence of a direct link but there is also no evidence that this may not be somehow linked. Why not have a scientific investigation? 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stirred a hornet's nest when he warned against succumbing to ‘unscientific prejudices’ against genetically modified (GM) crops. Speaking at the 101^st Indian Science Congress at Jammu. He claimed that biotechnology has great potential to improve yields and his government remains committed ‘to promoting the use of these new technologies for agricultural development’.

Prime Minister’s statement lauding the controversial GM technology has not come as any surprise. Two environment ministers – Jairam Ramesh and Jayanthi Natarajan – have been eased out in the recent past essentially because of their opposition to GM crops. Jairam Ramesh was responsible for imposing a moratorium on Bt brinjal which if approved for cultivation would have opened up flood gates for the introduction of many more GM food crops; and his successor Jayanthi Natarajan who is generally believed to have resisted industry pressures to allow field trials of GM crops.

The day after Prime Minister openly came out in support of the dangerously risky GM technology, Monsanto stocks rose by 5.45 per cent. 

The stakes are therefore very high. For the multi-billion dollar industry, India’s refusal to accept GM crops can spell a death knell. Considering that many State governments have refused permission for holding field trials of GM crops, and the swelling opposition from Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and subsequently the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) the industry has been mounting pressure through the back channels. But let's first understand how true the so-called ‘scientific’ claims of the industry are; and whether GM crops are actually safe for human health and environment.

Prime Minister says that GM technology has great potential to improve yields. This has been claimed by the industry too. But the fact is that it is now 20 years since the first GM crop was introduced in the United States, and there is still no GM crop that increases crop productivity. US Department of Agriculture’s own studies show that the yields of GM corn and Soybean are less than that of conventional varieties.  Even in India, the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) Nagpur, which monitors the cotton crop, has admitted: “No significant yield advantage has been observed between 2004-2011 when area under Bt cotton increased from 5.4 to 96 per cent.”

The argument that the world needs to produce more for the growing population by the year 2050, and therefore it needs GM crops therefore does not hold true. But let’s look at it. Is there a shortage of food in the world? According to the USDA estimate for 2013, the world produced food good enough to feed 14 billion people. In other words, the world produces food for twice the existing population. The real problem lies in food wastage. Nearly 40 per cent of the food produced is wasted. In the US alone $ 165 billion worth of food is wasted, enough to meet the food requirement of the entire sub-Saharan Africa.

In India, which has close to 250 million people going to bed empty stomach, appalling hunger is not because of any shortfall in food production. In June 2013, India had a record food surplus of 82.3 million tones. It has already exported 20 million tonnes out if it, and there are plans to export another 20 million tones so as to reduce the carrying cost of stored food. Instead of increasing food production, the Food Ministry is planning to reduce food procurement and also use the huge stocks with the Food Corporation of India for commodity trading.

The promise of reduction in pesticides usage has also fallen flat. According to Washington State University researcher Charles Benbrook, between 1996 and 2011, farmers in US are applying an additional 181million litres of chemical pesticides. In 2012, on an average 20 per cent more pesticides were applied by GM farmers. This is now expected to go up by 25 per cent with the introduction of the next range of GM crops which will use a cocktail of herbicides including the deadly broad-spectrum chemicals.

In Argentina, the application of chemical pesticides has risen from 34 million litres in the mid-1990s when the GM soybean crops were first introduced to more than 317 million litres in 2012, roughly a ten times increase. On an average, Argentine farmers use twice the quantity of pesticides per acre than their American counterparts. In Brazil, which has recently taken over Argentina as far as the spread of GM crops is concerned, pesticides use has gone up by 190 per cent in the past decade. 

The Chinese farmers are spraying 20 times more pesticides to control pests. In India, the story is no different. Regardless of what the industry claims, the fact remains that the usage of pesticides too has gone up in India. In 2005, Rs 649-crore worth of chemical pesticides was used on cotton in India. In 2010, when roughly 92 per cent area under cotton shifted to Bt cotton varieties, the pesticides usage in terms of value increased to Rs 880.40 crore. 

Equally more worrisome is the emergence of hard-to-kill weeds, called ‘super weeds’. Estimates show that in US over 100 million acres is now infested with super weeds. Besides using a cocktail of chemical pesticides to control it, some US States are going in for hand weeding since chemicals are no longer effective. In neighbouring Canada, more than 1 million acre is infested with super weeds. Studies show that 21 weeds have now developed resistance after GM crops came. Insects too are now developing immunity against GM crops. In India, Monsanto has already accepted that bollworm pest is becoming resistant.

With no benefits accruing as far as increasing crop yields is concerned or reducing pesticides applications and thereby protecting the human health and environment, I don’t know what promise the Prime Minister sees in GM crops. In fact, all evidence now points to an end of the era in industrial agriculture. With soils poisoned, underground water mined ruthlessly, and with the entire food chain contaminated by chemical pesticides and fertilizers leading to more greenhouse gas emissions, the focus is now shifting to ecological agriculture. 

In Andhra Pradesh, nearly 3.5 million acres today is being cultivated without the use of any chemical pesticides. Out of which, farmers do not use even fertilisers in 2.0 million acres. Production is steadily rising, pollution has come down, soil fertility is rising, farmer’s income has gone up and there are no suicides. Isn’t it a model of farming that the Prime Minister should be advocating? If it can be done in 3.5 million acres I see no reason why it cannot be practiced in 35.0 million acres? That’s where the future lies. #

Further reading: 

1. Time to sow the seeds of sustainable farming. Hindustan Times, Feb 10, 2014. http://bit.ly/1bDlyG8

2. Shifting to organic breeding. Deccan Herald. Feb 7, 2014. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/385133/shifting-organic-breeding.html

The Global Land Rush: Land Sharks Now Eyeing India

Women protest land grab in Cambodia. 

While you were sleeping, there has been a spurt in land grabbing.

"Of the 848 deals concluded since 2008, 80 involve Indian companies that have invested in 65 deals to grow foodgrains, sugarcane, oilseeds, tea and flowers," report Hindustan Times (India buys land 9 times Delhi size abroad. http://bit.ly/1b3fsPp).  

While Indian Companies are buying land abroad, foreign companies are buying land in India. As per this news report, in 39 deals Indian Companies have bought abroad an area equal to 9 times the size of Delhi. And foreign Companies from UK, US, Austria and Thailand have concluded 36 deals to buy farm land in India in the States of Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Seven of these deals have already been completed allowing 13,105 hectares to be acquired. This is based on an excellent detailed insight provided on the web site Land Matrix. You can Google and find out more details. Total deals it has details about till date are 23729439, and the total area acquired for agricultural purposes is 23,729,439 hectares. Mind boggling, isn't it? 

As I said somewhere, every second an area equivalent to that of a football ground (0.72 hectares) is being acquired in the majority world. Among those who are investing in such land deals are not only MNCs, big business, hedge funds, venture capitalists, but even universities.    

At this rate the day is not far off when most people will become landless in their own country. Call it neo-colonisation or economic growth (as some may perceive this development to be), the fact remains that land grab has become a major investment over the past few years. As we continue to sleep over, and perhaps think it will not mean uprooting us at least, the land sharks are scanning each and every nook of the world to lay hands upon whatever piece of land they can. To me this is simply frightening. It has grave human rights implications, and would impact global food security to say the least. In other words, it has all the makings of a tremendous people's revolt in the years to come. 

Imagine, wherever you are living you being surrounded by fenced land purchased by foreign companies. Imagine the flag of the country from which the company hails from is fluttering in your neighbourhood. maybe more than one flag. Gradually most of us will find ourselves living in no man's land surrounded by international borders on all sides. As said earlier, the land sharks are now eyeing India. The country seems to be up for grabs. No wonder, soon after passing the new land aquisition law that makes it easier for companies to acquire land, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had said: 'We will not need land acquisition law after 20 years'. So true. Isn't it? After all, there would be no land left to be acquired by then !

I wonder what national anthem would we sing then? 

Where are farm hands when you need them?

Recently, Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh, rubbished the need for freezing the flagship rural job scheme MNREGA during peak agricultural season. Dismissing the possibility, Ramesh had said: “The matter has been examined by the Mihir Shah committee and rejected.” Knowing that Mihir Shah’s entry into Planning Commission was entirely based on his blind support for MNREGA, I am not the least surprised. What baffles me is the ease with which Jairam Ramesh, one of the more sensible of the Cabinet ministers, rejects the need when the farming community is faced with a terrible shortage of labour at the time of harvest.

Jairam Ramesh was reacting to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s simple and long standing demand for freezing MNREGA activities in the three peak months of harvesting and sowing. This also found a mention in the Economic Survey 2012 thereby inviting Ramesh’s ire. The Survey had rightly stated: “While the overall performance of MNREGA has been good, there is scope for improvements like focused planning, shifting to permanent asset and infrastructure building activities .. avoiding peak seasons in agriculture.”

Considering that MNREGA provides for 100 days assured employment, and there are 365 days in a year, I don’t see why the Planning Commission, the Ministry for Rural Development, and as well as the National Advisory Council, should have any objections to the legitimate demand of the Agriculture ministry. After all, if rural employment guarantee programme is hampering agricultural operations, the first and foremost need is to redraw the contours of the programme in a manner that agriculture is least affected. Even if it needs an amendment in the MNREGA Act, it must be done. At no cost can the employment guarantee programme be allowed to play havoc with farming operations.    

In any case, MNREGA is supposed to provide assured employment during the lean months and I see no logic in continuing with its activities at a time when agricultural operations are at its peak. This is a time when rural labour in gainfully employed. I see no reason why the Ministry of Rural Development should wean away farm workers at a time when they get assured employment. The basic objective of the rural employment scheme is to supplement job creating rather than to displace workers from agriculture and employ them instead in some mundane activities like digging ponds.

MNREGA has completed five years. And it is in these five years that the crisis in agriculture has also worsened. In lot many ways I find the terrible agrarian crisis directly proportionate to the absence of farm labour in the rural areas. With labour moving to non-farm activities, and with reports of massive corruption that prevails in the way the rural employment guarantee scheme is being operated, it is a known fact that workers now get paid for not doing anything. They get reduced wages but often do not have to work, just sign. Travelling across the country I find workers sitting idle when farm operations are at its peak.

Acute paucity of farm workers is also among the reasons why more and more farmers are quitting agriculture. Let us not forget that over 60 per cent of those who seek guaranteed employment are marginal farmers owning small tracts of land. Sharad Pawar is therefore absolutely right when he demands freezing the employment guarantee scheme at the peak periods of farm operations. Not paying heed to the crying need will ultimately kill agriculture.

Now if you are wondering as to who gains by keeping rural workers away from agriculture, it is the agribusiness industry. Shortage of farm labour has already led to the creation of a National Mission on Farm Mechanisation. More mechanisation is being suggested as the way to overcome the crisis in farm labour. In the absence of manual weeding, it is time to promote herbicides as the solution. It is therefore a windfall for farm implement manufacturers as well as suppliers of pesticides, including herbicides. The more the sale of chemical inputs and farm machines, the more will be the addition to GDP. No wonder, the Planning Commission is not in favour of letting farm workers remain on the farm.


Source: Tehelka, Mar 31, 2012
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main52.asp?filename=Op310312proscons.asp#