GM Crops + Cos gained farmers lost under WTO + BIO-ETHANOL + Climate Change

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NEWS Bulletin from Indian Society For Sustainable Agriculture And Rural Development ********************************** On GM Crops--- 1. Delhi University's GM mustard gets process patent rights 2. India to benefit from second generation transgenic crops, says Monsanto chief On BIO-ETHANOL-- 3. More sweetener likely to bail out sugar industry On WTO Issues - 4.

Firms gained more than farmers under WTO norms, says Centad On CLIMATE CHANGE-- 5. ICRISAT cautions India against impact of climate change 6. Minimum support price (MSP) gap of crops rising, particularly between wheat and paddy ------------------------------- Delhi University's GM mustard gets process patent rights http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Delhi-Universitys-GM-mustard-gets-process-patent-rights/220278/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Sunday , September 23, 2007 at 2304 hrs IST New Delhi, Sep 23 The University of Delhi has been accorded process patent rights by the US Patent Office relating to the development of the transgenic mustard hybrid, DMH-1. "We have applied for two other process patent rights for developing the transgenic mustard seed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. We expect to get these patent rights soon," said the Vice chancellor, Deepak Pental. He said that the transgenic mustard hybrid has pollination control mechanism. Demonstration trials followed by multi-locational field trials of DMH-1 were successfully conducted in 2005-06 and

the results showed that DMH-1 had higher yield advantage over its check counterpart, Rohini. The University of Delhi (South Campus) has also developed another transgenic hybrid, DMH-11 which is also claimed to higher yield advantage over its check counterpart, Varuna. Pental further said : "The Supreme Court in its recent order has directed that the isolation distance between GM and non-GM crops field trials should be maintained at 200 metres. This has made difficult to conduct field trials." He said that private seed companies were, however, interested in commercialising the transgenic mustard hybrids. "But now we have allowed the public sector agencies, National Seeds Corporation and State Farms Corporation of India to produce seeds. The National Dairy Development Board and DOFCO are funding the production of seeds," he said. The Genetic

Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) had approved field trials of transgenic mustard, but the Supreme Court in response to a petition filed by Aruna Rodrigues and PV Satheesh banned field trials of GM crops on September 22, 2006. Thereafter the apex court made an exception and allowed field trials on transgenic mustard. On May, this year the apex court modified its earlier order and allowed field trials of GM crops with riders. If transgenic mustard crop gets its final approval after further field trials, it would be the first food crop to be commercialised in the country. It must be noted in context that GEAC had earlier refused to give its nod to commercialisation of transgenic mustard hybrids developed by ProAgro in collaboration with Aventis. -------------- India to benefit from second generation transgenic crops, says Monsanto

chief http://www.financialexpress.com/news/India-to-benefit-from-second-generation-transgenic-crops/220280/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Sunday , September 23, 2007 at 2308 hrs IST New Delhi, Sep 23 India is slated to benefit from the second generation of transgenic crops, particularly the drought resistant ones, according to scientific affairs director of Monsanto-Singapore, Harvey Glick. Speaking to FE, Glick said : "We are developing second generation of transgenic crops which would be resistant to drought and would require half the intake of nitrogen for doubling its yield. We are ready to

transfer this technology for the benefit of Indian farmers." This would also result in improved water use efficiency, he said. Monsanto has developed drought tolerant corn hybrids and the lead events showed yield improvement under drought stress in field trials over two years in North and South America. This drought resistant corn hybrid would be launched in US in 2012, he said Glick was recently in India at an international conference on biotechnology hosted by the apex industry body, FICCI. Glick said that the company's future plans were also for developing feed and bio-fuel crops. He said already transgenic soybean stacked with Roundup Ready traits for increased oil stability, less hydrogenation and trans fat has been launched. It has reduced linolenic acid to the extent of less than 3%. The transgenic soybean has increased Omega-3 fatty acid

for health benefits "The Omega-3 in soybeans has longer shelf life. One acre of Omega-3 SDA soyean is equal in benefits derived from 13,000 salmon," he said and added that Monsanto was also developing high lysine corn (from 1000 ppm to 4000 ppm) for poultry feed. ----- BIO-ETHANOL : More sweetener likely to bail out sugar industry http://www.financialexpress.com/news/More-sweetener-likely-to-bail-out-sugar-industry/218798/0 ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 2316 hrs IST In a bid

to help the sugar industry cut the cost for producing ethanol, the government is planning to allow ethanol production directly from sugarcane juice, instead of costlier molasses route. This may also help farmers cope with falling prices following record output. Plans are afoot to render incentives to the sugar mills for deploying the technology for extraction of ethanol directly from sugarcane juice. The government is also examining ways to provide a little more fiscal support to the industry with a condition that mills would clear dues to the farmers, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday. In response to the government’s announcement, sugar scrips in the domestic capital market rose 6% to15.5 % following Pawar’s comments. Shares of Simbhaoli Sugar rose over 15% to Rs 39.55, Triveni Sugar rose close to 12% to Rs 123.50 after touching Rs 125.85, its 52-week high. India’s biggest sugar producer Bajaj Hindusthan rose over 6% to Rs 155.90 in the Mumbai market after the announcement. When asked if excise duty exemption was being explored, the minister said a group of ministers (GoM) has taken a few decisions and he would soon seek a Cabinet approval. “The GoM headed by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee has recently recommended that the sugar mills can deploy the technology for extracting ethanol directly from sugarcane juice. The proposal would be sent to the Union Cabinet for approval,” Pawar said in the sidelines of 5th Global Knowledge Millennium Summit hosted by Assocham here on Wednesday. He said the GoM also resolved to extend monetary incentives to sugar mills in this programme and the mandatory doping of auto-fuel with ethanol would be increased to 10% by October 2008. At present, the mandatory doping norm is 5%. “We

will see that the monetary incentives to the mills will be on the condition that they clear the payments to cane growers,” he said. However, according to some experts, the sugar mills have the capacity to produce ethanol from molasses for meeting the needs of 5% mandatory blending of auto-fuels as well for the requirements of the breweries and distilleries. If additional 5% blending norm is introduced and the mill source ethanol directly from sugarcane juice, it would cause a dip in sugar output by more than one to 2 million tonne. On wheat, Pawar said the government would go slow in floating fresh tenders for further import. --------- Firms gained more than farmers under WTO norms, says Centad http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Firms-gained-more-than-farmers-under-WTO-norms-says-Centad/220430/0 ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Monday , September 24, 2007 at 0052 hrs IST The present asymmetric rules of the multilateral trading system coupled with the lack of appropriate policies of the national governments has benefited select global agribusiness firms, rather than the farmers, said a recent study done by the Delhi-based Centre for Trade and Development (Centad). The study expressed concern over the Doha Development Round and said, " it now hangs on a thin tread as trade negotiators in Geneva make their absolutely last second

attempts to get a fair deal. It is undeniable that the current impasse is primarily the result of unfair agricultural trade rules of the previous rounds of trade talks. The real beneficiaries of asymmetric rules have been business firms, rather than the farmers. Little wonder then that agribusiness has been one of the most important drivers of agricultural rules at the multilateral level." According to the Centad study empirically global agricultural trade is highly asymmetric with large number of producers linked to very few traders who in turn sell to large number of buyers. Therefore there are few leaders to decide the price and choice of consumption. Bayers, Syngenta, BASF, Dow and Monsanto control 65% of the pesticide sales in the world. Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Groupe Limagarin in the sale turnover of 10 major seed companies account for 72% market share in the world, while Monsanto alone has 91%

global market share in the sale of genetically modified seeds. Global top 10 food retailers command a market share of 24% amounting to $ 3.5 trillion, out of which Wal Mart, Carrefour, Metro AG and Ahod account for 64%. Chiquita and Dole Foods command 50% of banana sales, while Unilever/Brooke Bond, Cadbury Schweppes and Allied-Lyons control 80% of global tea sales. The study said about two types of agribusiness consolidation—horizontal and vertical. When companies dealing with same product enter into an alliance, it is horizontal consolidation like Cargil, Cenex, ADM and General Mills controlling 60% of terminal grain handling in the world. Vertical consolidation is where few companies are in a commanding position in the `field-to-table' process. The study says Carrefour's revenue from sales is greater than the the gross national income of Chile, while that of Wal Mart 3.2

times the gross national income of Pakistan and that of Cargil is equal to the gross national income of Romania. Comparing the retail price of tea in India at Rs 160 a kg, the Centad study noted that it was more than 3 times greater than the average auction price for tea at Rs 50 per kg. Potato chip in India priced at Rs 143 a kg was 28 times more than the price of potato paid to farmers. Similarly one pound of loose banana sold in UK Super Market at 40 pence was 27 times more than the price the plantation workers receive The study also found compliance of stringent standards of developed countries would burden the farmers in the developing countries. Compliance to EUREP-GAP norms would amount to 70% of the average income of Ghana farmers, 87% of the average income of Indian farmers and about 1.3 times the annual per capita income of Bangladesh. -------------------------------- ICRISAT cautions India against impact of CLIMATE CHANGE http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Icrisat-cautions-India-against-impact-of-climate-change/220432/0 ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Monday , September 24, 2007 at 0056 hrs IST The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has cautioned India against the possible impact of climate change which is likely jeopardise the livelihood of a large number of people living below the poverty line. There are other associated problems like desertification, land degradation,

biodiversity loss, water scarcity and shortage of fossil fuel. According to an estimate one billion poor people in the world are vulnerable to the impact of climate change and other related problems. India accounts for 25.93% of this one billion world's poor who are likely to bear the burnt of climate change, while China accounts for 16.66% and the rest of Asia-Pacific accounting for 18.30%. The climate change impact on peoples' livelihood is also likely to felt in other parts of the globe outside Asia, which is the hub of the world's poor. In sub-Saharan Africa 23.94% of the estimated one billion global population will bear the impact, while Latin America and the Caribbean would account for 6.22% and northeastern and northern Africa 4.57%. Speaking to FE, the ICRISAT director-general, William D Dar said, "It would be an unpardonable crime if we

view the situation in business as usual manner. The poor can be made less vulnerable with greater science and knowledge-based interventions and more importantly significant donor support from for research and implementation. Unless we gear up to the situation the UN Millennium Development Goals for reducing global poverty by half by 2015 will be difficult to meet." Many parts of the world are already showing signs of physical water scarcity—India, eastern Australia, Pakistan, China, Central Asia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, parts of southern Africa, southern USA and northern Mexico. With greater demands from other sectors, the water availability for agriculture is getting limited. Dar who has been recently elected to chair the science and technology committee of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification said that ICRISAT has been working for the benefit of the people in the dryland areas and would

help the Indian government in its initiatives for the poor. ICRISAT is also working with several global agencies and national governments in an effort to improve the conditions of the people in dryland tropics. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has launched a challenge programme called Oasis to fight desertification. In India, ICRISAT, as an affiliated institution of CGIAR, is implementing it through India Council of Agricultural Research. Apart from CGIAR institutions, six institutions are supporting Oasis like CIRAD/IRD, European Consortium for Agricultural Research in the Tropics, European Commission's Institute for Environment Sustainability of the Joint Research Centre, European DesertNet and SahelSahara Observatory. --------------- Minimum support price (MSP) gap of crops rising, particularly

between wheat and paddy http://www.financialexpress.com/news/MSP-gap-of-crops-rising/219217/ ASHOK B SHARMAPosted online: Thursday , September 20, 2007 at 2340 hrs IST New Delhi, Sep 20 The government is planning to increase the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by formulating an additional bonus price for procurement. The MSP for paddy has not increased significantly since 2002 to keep up with that of wheat. This has resulted in the widening of the gap between the MSPs of two staple crops—wheat and rice. The MSP for common variety paddy for 2007-08 is Rs 645 a quintal while that of Grade A

variety paddy is Rs 675 a quintal. The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has computed the wheat MSP for the current season at Rs 1000 a quintal. At this level the difference between the MSPs for wheat and common variety paddy works out to Rs 355 a quintal. The gap between the MSPs for wheat and Grade A variety paddy is also wide at Rs 325 a quintal. “The ideal gap between the MSPs for wheat and paddy should be in the range of about Rs 100 . This situation was in 2002-03 when the MSP for common variety paddy was Rs 530 a quintal, that of Grade A variety at Rs 560 a quintal and that of wheat at Rs 620 a quintal,” said Union agriculture secretary PK Mishra. Farmers are, however not happy over the CACP’s recommendation of hiking the MSP for wheat from Rs 850 a quintal (effective price with bonus) to Rs 1000 a quintal. “The wheat MSP should be raised in the range of Rs 1200 to Rs 1500 a quintal.

The government is already paying over Rs 1,567 a quintal on an average for the landed cost of imported wheat. Why can’t it not pay that much amount to farmers,” said Krishan Bir Chaudhary, president of Bharatiya Krishak Samaj. Chaudhary, however said that the gap between the MSPs for wheat and paddy needs to be narrowed down to Rs 100 per quintal. He said that paddy cultivation entails higher costs which includes transplantation. However some agriculture economists are of the view that parity should be worked out between the MSP for wheat and milled rice and not with paddy as this would be in the interests of consumers------

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