Seeds of Suicide the Ecological and Human Costs of Seed Monopolies and Globalisation of Agriculture
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Seeds of Suicide The Ecological and Human Costs of Seed Monopolies and Globalisation of Agriculture Dr Vandana Shiva, Kunwar Jalees Navdanya A-60, Hauz Khas, New Delhi – 110 016, INDIA Tel : 2653 5422; 2696 8077; 2656 1868 Fax : 2685 6795; 2696 2589 e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] URL : http://www.navdanya.org i Seeds of Suicide : The Ecological and Human Costs of Seed Monopolies and Globalisation of Agriculture © Navdanya First edition : December 1998 Second edition : December 2000 Revised Third edition : January 2002 Revised Fourth edition : May 2006 Author: Vandana Shiva, Kunwar Jalees Published by : Navdanya A-60, Hauz Khas New Delhi - 110 016, India Tel: 91-11-2696 8077, 2685 3772 Fax: 91-11-2685 6795 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.vshiva.net Cover Design : Systems Vision Printed by : Systems Vision A-199 Okhla Ph-I, New Delhi - 110 020 Ph.: 2681 1195, 2681 1841 ii Dedicated to the Farmers of India who committed suicide, with a hope for a farming future which is suicide free. iii iv Contents Introduction Seeds of Suicides ............................................................................ vii The Changing Nature of Seed From Public Resource to Private Property .......................... 1 1. Diverse Seeds for Diversity ......................................................... 1 2. The Decline of the Public Sector ............................................... 3 3. The Privatisation of the Seed Sector .......................................... 7 4. Big Companies Getting Bigger.................................................... 14 5. Legislating For Privatisation......................................................... 23 Farmers Indebtedness and Suicides .............................................. 56 Why Farmers are Killing Themselves? .............................................. 64 Failure of Institutional Delivery of Credit to Farmers ...................... 67 Effective Credit Mechanism ............................................................... 71 The Alternative Micro Credit ............................................................ 72 Indebtedness: The Main Factor ......................................................... 72 Genetically Engineered Seeds The Case of Transgenic Cotton Trials in India ....................... 75 1. Economics of GE Revolution ...................................................... 76 2. New Technologies ....................................................................... 81 3. Illegal Trials of GE in India......................................................... 84 4. Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered Bt Cotton : New Miracle or New Disaster? ............................................ 88 5. Socio-Ecological Aspects of GE Revolution ............................... 98 6. The Inadequacies of Present Biosafety Regulations ................... 109 7. Illegal Spread of Bt cotton from Illegal Trials in India.............. 113 v Seeds of Suicide The Ecological & Human Costs of Genetic Engineering and Globalisation of Agriculture ............................................. 140 1. The Andhra Pradesh Scenario of Farmers’ Suicides .................. 141 2. The Karnataka Scenario on Farmers’ Suicides ........................... 160 3. The Maharashtra Scenario on Farmers Suicides, Farmers Suicides in Vidharbha ................................................... 187 4. The Punjab Scenario of Farmers Suicides .................................. 201 Bija Panchayat The Farmers’ Verdict .......................................................... 246 1. Bija Panchayat ............................................................................. 246 2. Seeds of Distress and Seeds of Suicide ...................................... 248 3. IPRs : Legal Control of the Seed ................................................ 251 4. Genetic Engineering and Threats to Agriculture and Life ......... 253 5. The Verdict of Bija Panchayat .................................................... 258 6. Recommendations ....................................................................... 259 Seeds of Life, Seeds of Freedom: Rebuilding Seed Sovereignty ................................................... 260 1. Strengthening Public Sector Seed Supply: A Case Study of Tarai Seed Corporation .............................. 262 2. Strengthening Community Seed Sovereignty : A Case of Navdanya Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity ........... 269 Bija Yatra 2006-2007.................................................................. 281 References .................................................................................... 284 vi Seeds of Suicides Introduction eed is the first link in the food chain. It is the primary means of production Sin agriculture. Over the centuries, seed has been evolved by farmers. Farmers have been breeding diverse varieties to adapt to diverse ecosystems, diverse economic and cultural needs. Farmers seeds have been tested over centuries. Farmers have freely saved and exchanged seed, they have freely planted diversity of crops to maintain ecosystems, meet their diverse needs and earn incomes. In the mid 60’s, new varieties with high response to chemicals were introduced. The public sector seed supply was made a major component of agricultural development with funds and aid from the World Bank. However, farmers seeds continued to account for 80% of the seed supply. In 1988, the World Bank which had financed the growth of the public sector seed supply in the 60’s and 70’s demanded its dismantling and recommended the shift to the private sector and an entry of MNC’s in the seed sector. The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology has been monitoring the impact of trade liberalization policies on Indian farmers and Indian agriculture since the new economic policy was introduced in 1991 and since the WTO rules of the Agreement on Agriculture came into force in 1995. The increasing costs of production and the falling farm prices that go hand in hand with globalisation, combined with the decline in farm credit is putting an unbearable debt burden on farmers. This is the burden that is pushing farmers to suicide. Government agencies have deliberately delinked the economic crisis farmers are facing from the psychological stresses that this results in. An attempt has been made to reduce the biggest crisis the Indian peasantry has faced in its long and ancient history to the problem of alcoholism and adultery, in order to protect the unworkable and non-sustainable trade liberalization policies as the basis of agriculture. The non-sustainability was exposed in Cancun at the WTO ministerial. At the negotiation level the talks collapsed because the group of 20 rejected a system of unfair rules for agriculture trade, which destroys small farmers by forcing open up markets to dump artificially cheap, dishonestly priced agricultural products subsidized with $ 400 billion dollars. At the human level the non-sustainability of the current agricultural system was symbolized in the suicide by Lee Kyung Hae, a Korean farmer, who took his life at the barricades of the peoples protest against the WTO ministerial. vii As he stabbed himself, he carried a banner stating “WTO kills farmers.” During the ceremony, to honour Mr. Lee’s sacrifice the message was, “the sacrifice of Mr. Lee was not in vain. His spirit of struggle will live on in our hearts as we keep fighting for the better world that is possible.” Mr. Lee’s suicide was symbolic of the suicides of thousands of farmers. In this report, fourth in our series on farm suicides, we show how farmers are paying for corporate led globalisation with their very lives. We hope that the failure of WTO talks in Cancun and the high human cost of farmers suicides will provide a momentum to shift agriculture and trade policy towards justice, sustainability and the defense of farmers human rights to their lives and livelihoods. The report on “seeds of suicide”, which we have been updating since 1997, covers three aspects of the impact of the new policies of the so called “liberalisation” of the seed sector. Firstly, it shows that the trends towards privatisation and concentration of the seed industry and displacement of farmer varieties. A shift from government control to farmers control was the option foregone at the national level. The consequences of giving seed companies a free hand through privatisation and deregulation has been increasing the costs of seeds and agrichemicals for farmers, increasing farm debts and increasing crop failure. Farmers suicides are the extreme result of these policies of market freedom. Farmers are falling prey to the marketing strategies of seed companies. Globalisation is leading to the emergence of a new kind of corporate feudalism – the convergence of global market forces with the worst forms of feudal control. The removal of the public sector and the undermining of the community in the seed supply has allowed the reemergence of the feudal power of land lords and moneylenders, empowered by global corporations, their products and their capital. This Corporate power is working through feudal structure to capitalise seed markets. The seed and agrichemical companies use the local rural elite, the land lords and money lenders for selling seeds and pesticides for providing credit to poor peasants for buying those high cost inputs. This Corporate feudalism is leading to an epidemic of suicides. It has rendered agriculture socially, economically and ecologically non-sustainable. The fourth edition