GM:_BETRAYAL_IN_INDIA

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> GMW:_BETRAYAL_IN_INDIA

> " GM_WATCH " <info

> Wed, 25 Aug 2004 22:22:11 +0100

 

>

> GM WATCH daily

> http://www.gmwatch.org

> ---

> The following excerpt from the article 'Confronting

> the giant - Global GM technology and the small

> farmer', originally published in 2001, could not be

> more pertinent to what is currently happening in

> India.

>

> For more on the work of the Deccan Development

> Society: http://www.ddsindia.com

> ---

> BETRAYAL IN INDIA

> http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=2167

>

> Nowhere is the future of agriculture more critical

> than in India, where the very existence of millions

> of small farmers depends directly on the crops they

> grow and the land they manage. In the Indian

> countryside, hungry people as well as the

> environment have been the ones to pay the price of

> the new, industrialised agriculture, with its

> unsustainable demands on ecosystems and scarce

> natural resources, such as water.

>

> NEW GENE REVOLUTION

>

> The voice of Indian farmers has a special poignancy,

> because they represent a nation which was betrayed

> by the so-called 'green revolution' of the 1960s and

> '70s. This had the effect of concentrating wealth,

> land and power in the hands of the few who could

> afford the expensive new seeds and agrochemicals,

> and contributed to the migration of millions of

> disenfranchised farmers to the cities, where they

> have become the new urban poor. It is a tragic

> reflection on the state of Indian agriculture that

> during the last three years over 10,000 farmers have

> committed suicide.

>

> Millions of people in India are still starving

> today, despite the fact that the granaries of the

> nation are full to bursting. In 2001, it is

> estimated that there will be some 50 million tonnes

> of food surplus, although most of this will go into

> animal feed. Access to food is being denied to the

> people who need it the most because they cannot

> afford it, and there are inadequate systems of

> distribution. It is a sad reality that with fair

> distribution, every single person in the country

> could have access to food.

>

> Many of the so-called experts who pushed the 'green

> revolution' are now pushing the 'gene revolution'.

> The potential outcomes are equally devastating, and

> the movement in India against GM crops is one of the

> most active in the world. Entire fields of GM crops

> have been ripped up and burned, and many small

> farmers are making a proactive stand in different

> ways against the multinationals. They believe that

> the kind of technology being offered cannot possibly

> make food cheaper, and will simply make things

> worse.

>

> ONE WOMAN'S VISION

>

> Lakshmi Umnapur is one such farmer. According to

> tradition and birth, she is a 'dalit' or

> untouchable; one of the lowest castes in society. As

> a single mother, who supports a young daughter and

> both her mother and father from her work on the

> land, she might be labelled by western society as

> 'socially marginalised'. However, she is playing an

> important role in the empowerment of India's small

> farmers.

>

> Lakshmi is a seed keeper, and one of 5,000 women

> farmers involved in a scheme co-ordinated by the

> Deccan Development Society (DDS) in the Medak region

> of Andhra Pradesh in Southern India. As the owner of

> just 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of land, she is the

> guardian of 85 different crop species, including

> sorghum, pigeon and chick pea, barley, lentils, mung

> bean, oil seeds, and her own favourite, millet, of

> which she has seven different varieties. She speaks

> enthusiastically about the nutritional and

> health-giving properties of the wild green leafy

> vegetables which grow amongst her crops, and which

> would have been destroyed by an agrochemical based

> system years ago. Not surprisingly, she is entirely

> self-sufficient.

>

> Soil fertility and stabilisation are important

> concerns for farmers in the region, which receives

> an average of just 800mm (31Hin) of rain a year.

> Most of this falls in downpours during the monsoon

> season and is wasted, since it cannot be absorbed by

> the parched soil. Lakshmi lives in an area ravaged

> by soil erosion, yet by using an elaborate system of

> multi-cropping, nitrogen fixers, manure and living

> green mulch plants, she has created soil with an

> unrivalled richness and fertility. Her attunement to

> the seasons and weather is natural and instinctive,

> and plays an integral part in her understanding of

> the earth and its processes.

>

> Outside help is only called in for a few days of the

> year. For one day, she will draw on the support of

> 30 people from the village to do the weeding. She

> says that this only needs to be done once, since the

> weeds all have their place within the system. The

> only other time labour is called in is to help with

> harvesting the pigeonpeas, which involves some 15

> people over several days. These helpers are all paid

> in kind, not cash.

>

> SELLING OUT THE FUTURE

>

> Six to seven years ago, many small farmers in

> Lakshmi's village were influenced by the marketing

> ploys of government policy makers and multinational

> companies, and started to use new, supposedly

> 'improved' but sterile hybrid seed varieties. The

> seed produced a good harvest, but villagers were

> afflicted by previously unknown allergies when they

> ate the produce grown from it. They were able to

> sell their crops on and were left with a small

> amount of cash - but more critically, they had no

> seeds and nothing to eat. Now caught up within the

> global marketing system, they were forced to buy

> both food and next season's seed, instead of using

> their own carefully saved varieties, developed over

> generations in the tradition which had sustained

> their families for centuries.

>

> This disaster could, as in so many other regions,

> have driven the people from their land and villages

> to become just another statistic in the often-quoted

> millions of starving, disenfranchised urban poor.

> Fortunately, two farmers in the village had refused

> to plant hybrids, and still held the traditional

> varieties of seed. Supported by the Deccan

> Development Society, villagers have been encouraged

> to take the responsibility for food production back

> into their own hands and now use a combination of

> permaculture and traditional methods of mixed

> cropping, rotation, pest control and fertilisation.

>

> As a seed keeper, Lakshmi has taken six years to

> gather her 85 varieties of food plants, and now

> shares the seed with other farmers. The money she

> makes from any sales of seed goes to develop further

> conservation and distribution, and with

> encouragement from the Deccan Development Society,

> she is participating in a sangam', or community seed

> bank programme.

>

> BUYING LIFE ITSELF

>

> But the multinational companies now have a new

> wonder product to bestow upon the farmers of India.

> Their representatives have been visiting rural areas

> looking for interesting varieties and species of

> plant life, and buying up 'Intellectual Property

> Rights' - as if life itself was a commodity to be

> bought and sold on the open market. They are now

> returning to the farmers bearing free gifts of

> genetically modified seeds, often developed by

> changing a single gene in traditional varieties

> developed by the farmers themselves.

>

> Lakshmi sees the shadow of control and

> disenfranchisement looming yet again, as it did in

> the disastrous days when her village was offered

> hybrid seed. She says, 'First you take my seed. Then

> you take my land', and is suspicious of anyone who

> offers seed. But this time her village has the

> support of people such as Salome Yesudas of the DDS,

> who is working with women farmers like Lakshmi in

> some 80 villages across the region. They are being

> offered practical education and skills training

> (Lakshmi is now also a film maker), and have set up

> several alternative schools offering practical craft

> and rural skills to young people. They are finding a

> voice, and becoming equipped to stand up for what

> they believe in.

>

> Farmers like Lakshmi and Percy [schmeisser -

> featured in an earlier part of the article] are

> facing the challenge of GM head on. They are

> demonstrating that multinational companies and the

> rulings of governments across the globe cannot be

> allowed to force individuals into subservience,

> poverty and disenfranchisement or to despoil their

> heritage. Whilst they come from very different

> cultures, their battle is the same. It is the

> unifying struggle for human rights, quality of life,

> and the ultimate future of our planet.

>

> Charlotte Philcox is a founder member of Aylsham

> Permaculture Group.

>