Farmers shoot letter to AP Agriculture Minister seeking ban on GM cotton.

[Guest guest]

To Sri N.Raghuveera Reddy, Minister For Agriculture and Horticulture,

Food, Civil Supplies, Legal Metrology and Consumer Affairs, Block-J,7th

Floor, Room No-703, Ph: 040-23451196, Email: min_agr (AT) ap (DOT) gov.in

 

08.06.2006

 

Honourable Shri Raghuveerareddygaru,

 

Please let me greet you on behalf of the 40 million and odd farmers of

Andhra Pradesh on the auspicious day of Mrugasira Karte the day on

which the first rain star takes birth. A day when millions of farmers reach

their farm to plant the seed for a new season. A day on which hopes are

planted on earth. And a long wait begins for the harvests of the

planted seed.

 

Tomorrow you will be joining Agriculture Ministers from seven cotton

growing States of the country in a meeting at Hyderabad to discuss the

issue of price of Bt Seeds.

 

It is but natural that AP is chosen as the place for the agricultural

ministers to discuss the price of Bt cotton, because you and your

government have put up a historic fight against Monsanto to curb its greed

and clip its evil corporate wings. A fight unprecedented in the

agricultural history of the modern world. At least in the case of an

all-conquering Monsanto which has used corruption, sleaze and threat to make most

governments to bow before it.

 

But you have remained a shining star. Probably a Mrugasira Karte,

yourself. We trust, this is because you are a farmer yourself. And in a

world swamped by burgers and pizzas, you still eat Ragi Mudda at home,

paying tribute to mighty millets in your own way.

 

It is this personal and politically persona of yourself that inspirers

this letter to you. Reddygaru, please read this letter carefully before

you attend the Ministers’ meet. Please spare a few minutes for this

letter in your punishing schedule.

 

On the one hand this meeting of Agricultural Ministers is a welcome

news in the sense that there is a general understanding among the various

Indian states that the enormously usurious rates of Bt seeds are

robbing Indian farmers of the very small gains they get by cultivating Bt

cotton. But we also think that this is certainly not the only issue that

needs to be considered in your conference.

 

What we urge you to discuss is the issue why Bt cotton should not be

banned from Indian soils? What is it that we are going to lose if we do

so except for saving the royalty adding upto of billions of rupees that

Monsanto collects for its Bt gene and ploughs back into USA? Is it

right for us to make the poor Indian farmer pay for the greed of one of the

most profit hungry multinational?

 

When you are sitting for this conference, surely you will have before

you a long list of the history of failed Bt cotton in India,

particularly in Andhra Pradesh. You are also acutely aware that at least a

thousand farmers, if not more, have committed suicide after growing Bt cotton

in AP, Maharashtra as well as in Karnataka. These facts are not yet

very well known. But when they start emerging, they will be calamitous in

their impact.

 

In Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra at least half a dozen studies done by

independent scientists [scientists who have not been bought over by the

corporations nor the ones who are serving governments and therefore are

under the obligation not to speak out] and development economists have

clearly brought out the successive failures of Bt cotton both on the

economic front and yield front. You, Shri Raghuveera Reddygaru, are more

aware of this than your counterparts from other states. Our own studies

have been regularly fed to you and your government, year after year.

 

But unfortunately, these suicides and failures of Bt cotton will be

passed on to an elegant phrase coined by the biotech industry called

externalities. Will you be trapped by this elegant prose or are you ready to

put your nose into harsh facts, Shri Reddygaru? If you do, let us

produce some facts for you that you may not be very familiar with:

 

There is no scientific proof in this country that mentions that

pesticide consumption has reduced in the cotton growing districts after Bt

cotton has been introduced.

 

[if you read the statistics on the USDA website, you will know that in

the USA, after a decade of cultivating GM crops on nearly 65% of its

farms, pesticide use has not come down even by an ounce. The curve for

pesticide use has remained flat for the last ten years]. Please consider

this very seriously, since pesticide-reduction is the raison detre for

the existence of Bt cotton in this country, according to the MoEF. The

studies that we have ourselves conducted as well as the ones we are

familiar with, the reduction of pesticides is only very marginal. Just

about 6-7%, a fact that not merit the introduction of Bt Cotton.

 

The accumulating evidences suggest that the pest, Helicoverpa armigera

is already building resistance in India. This means that within two to

three years farmers must get back more toxic pest sprays than before,

or buy Bollgard II [which has been recently introduced in South Africa]

seeds which are supposed to have higher pest resistance properties in

them. But the catch is that in Australia Bollgard II sells at around

$110 [5060 rupees] per hectare, an amount with which Indian farmers can

purchase seeds for ten acres of land.

 

And then the question of Yield. Bt is not a yield spinning mechanism as

being promoted by industry. You know it more than anyone else Shri

Reddygaru. In your state alone Bt yields have crashed year after year. Two

AP governments have advised their farmers against Bt use. You are

clearly aware that yield in Bt Cotton depends on the yield potential of the

hybrid into which the Bt gene has been introduced.

 

In other words, if Bt gene is introduced into a low yielding hybrid,

the cotton yields will be low. If it is introduced into a high yielding

hybrid, the yields will be high. There is no contribution by Bt gene

itself to the yield increase in cotton

 

However there are so many studies which point to the crash of Bt cotton

in terms of yield, especially under non irrigated conditions. In Andhra

Pradesh, during the 2002-2003 year of dry spell, Bt cotton yields were

35% less than non Bt cotton yields. This has clearly emerged in our

study of 2002-2003. Since then we have done regularly scientific studies

until 2006. In no year Bt yields were significantly higher than non Bt

yields. On those rare years when Bt yielded higher than the same Non Bt

hybrids, the difference was hardly 1 to 2 per cent.

 

But let us caution about far more dangerous facts that are emerging

from our studies:

 

a. There are sufficient advance evidences to say that soils on which Bt

cotton is cultivated are becoming reservoirs of pathogens causing root

rot disease for subsequent crops such as chillies.

 

b. The toxicity of Bt plants for small ruminants is proving fatal. In

AP itself our own studies have carefully documented such instances since

2004 and have submitted reports to the Department of Animal Husbandry

for their action. For a country in which most of the rural poor,

especially women, who own a couple of small animals such as goats and many

shepherd households raise large herds of sheep and goat, this can be

fatal.

 

c. There are early reports that people who have stored their Bt cotton

harvest in their houses have started suffering from breathing allergies

and skin rashes. WE MUST SERIOUSLY CONSIDER WHAT EFFECT THIS MIGHT HAVE ON POOR COTTON PICKERS FOR WHOM WORKING ON COTTON FIELDS IS A MAJOR LIVELIHOOD OPTION.

 

Considering all these facts [and many more which we are willing to

submit to you if you want them, both within India and across the world],

the question now is not whether we will use Bt cotton at a reduced price?

 

The question really is, whether in the interest of the economic well

being small and poor farmers in India, in the interest of Indian soils,

in the interest of the health of the farm labourers,

particularly women, in the interest of the shepherding community of

this country, ARE WE READY TO BAN BT COTTON?

 

Mr Minister, millions of Indians in your state have elected you to this

august position with a lot of faith and hope. Please keep their

interests at your heart. Cutting through the corporate hype, brushing aside

the manufactured evidence of the bought up science, confronting the

powerful vested interests, please think on behalf of the small farmers who

are your major constituency and their bitter experiences with Bt cotton.

 

We have no doubt that you will concur with us that Bt is best Banned.

 

On the day of Mrugasira kaarte, day on which millions of your farmer

brethren go to their fields to plant new seeds for the new season, please

give them new hope Shri Reddygaru, by banning Bt from their fields. Let

their soils be saved, let their animals be saved. Let the health of

your millions of farmer fraternity be saved.

 

Please show this initiative with a new courage and determination, as

you have always shown in the past.

 

The state of AP and the Indian nation will be grateful to you for that

act.

 

Wishing you well in your deliberations

 

[p v satheesh]

Convenor, AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity

Convenor, South Against Genetic Engineering

 

To Sri N.Raghuveera Reddy, Minister For Agriculture and Horticulture,

Food, Civil Supplies, Legal Metrology and Consumer Affairs, Block-J,7th

Floor, Room No-703, Ph: 040-23451196, Email: min_agr (AT) ap (DOT) gov.in

 

Copy to:

 

1. Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Chief Minister, 'C' Block, 4th

Floor, AP Secretariat Hyderabad, Ph: 23456698,23451805,23455205 Fax:

(Off)23452498,23454828 (Res)23410555, Email: cmap (AT) ap (DOT) gov.in

 

2. Dr Poonam Malakondiah, Commissioner for Agriculture &

Additional Director of Agriculture, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh Ph: 23232107

Fax: 24565236 / 23237545 Email: comag (AT) ap (DOT) nic.in