AGRICULTURE-INDIA: GOVERNMENT DEFENDS GENETIC ...
OTC 29.12.98 02:34
BANGALORE, India, (Dec. 27) IPS - The Indian government has
rushed to the defense of the transnational corporation Monsanto
--which is under fire from protesting farmers' over the trial
planting of genetically-modified cotton.
At a seminar on transgenic crop technology held in this southern
metropolis last week, federal government officials and scientists
explained their stand on the disputed trials in two southern
states.
Byre Gowda, the agriculture minister of southern Karnataka state
where a large part of the experiments are being carried out,
denied that these involve the controversial
"terminator" technology which makes seeds sterile after
one harvest.
Manju Sharma, the top official in the Indian government's
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) said the department is
"strictly monitoring" the transgenic seed research. The
trials are backed by a "built-in level of mechanical checks
to prevent import of unwanted materials," he said.
P.K. Ghosh, adviser to the DBT and member of the department's
Reviewing Committee on Genetic Manipulation, cited figures from
field experiments to dispel fears that transgenic seed trials of
the kind being undertaken by Monsanto involve health hazards.
Monsanto is testing a new cotton seed with in-built resistance to
pests. This involves incorporating genes of the soil bacteria
known as Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The seed company has
patented the gene as Bollgard which poisons the cotton
devastating bollworm pest.
The company argues that the trials will benefit tens of thousands
of cotton farmers in the country and are specially relevant at a
time when a large part of India's cotton crop was damaged by
pests triggering a spate of suicides by farmers in southern
India.
Cotton is tilled on an estimated nine million hectares in India,
the largest area worldwide, which contributes to nearly a third
of global production. The average Indian cotton farm produces 330
kg per hectare compared to the world average yield of 552 kg per
hectare.
Cotton farmers are the heaviest users of chemical pest killers in
the country. In Karnataka, although the crop takes up a bare five
percent of the cultivated area, it accounts for more than half of
all pesticide used on farms in the state.
However, farmers' groups, led by the Karnataka State Farmers'
Association, claim that the new seed technology will do more harm
than good to farmers and their fields. They fear the anti-pest
gene in the Monsanto cotton can also kill beneficial
micro-organisms in the soil.
Monsanto's opponents claim the company is using the trials as a
cover to perfect terminator seed technology which will force
farmers to buy seeds from the company. Monsanto has denied that
the tests involve the terminator gene and disputed the charge
that its Bollgard cotton seed will be productive for just one
season.
The transnational insists that it has abided by the Indian
government's rules in conducting the field trials.
Spearheading the anti-Monsanto campaign is M.D. Nanjundaswamy,
firebrand leader of the Karnataka Farmers' Association, known for
his aggressive opposition to transnational agribusiness. The
Association has filed a criminal suit against Monsanto, charging
the company with violating official rules in its field trials.
Activists recently torched some Monsanto experimental farms
during demonstrations against the company.
Nanjundaswamy is not impressed by either Monsanto's or the Indian
government's stand on the trials. He claims that official
permission for the trials was given by the DBT on July 27, five
weeks after Monsanto had sown the plants. He also accuses
Monsanto of not observing the stipulated norms for sowing.
The controversy over the Monsanto trials has aroused passions in
the Indian Parliament and given rise to heated debate among
agricultural scientists. The government of Andhra Pradesh state
where the trials were also being carried out, has since ordered a
halt following an uproar in the state legislature.
According to G. Padmanabhan, former director of the prestigious
Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science, while terminator
technology is unsuitable for India, transgenic seeds can be
beneficial for Indian farmers.
However, Padmanabhan thinks that such research should be carried
out jointly by government and private business to protect the
interests of farmers. "We don't have the money to do this on
our own," he explains.
Apprehension over genetically-modified plant research also is
heightened by the absence of a biosafety law in the country. A
proposed Plant Varieties Protection enactment is under fire from
activist groups who say it will benefit agribusiness and
companies like Monsanto.
Copyright 1999