---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Professor George <jgsemig@gmail.com> Date: Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 1:09 PM Subject: Seeds Bill must not be seeded To: bharatiyakrishaksamaj@gmail.com, ashokbsharma@gmail.com Dear Chaudhary Saheb, I saw your interview in the business standard and have commented on it online. I hope they will upload it. tHE TEXT of my comments are aPPENDED BELOW for your use and needful. with my best wishes and regards, George "Dr Krishan Bir Chaudhary needs to be congratulated for pointing out grave pitfalls in the Seed Bill pending since 2004. Since Dr Chaudhary is also attempting to revive the Parliamentarians Forum, it may be a significant attempt to persuade these MPs to make a number of serious engagements at various fora on the ramifications of the draft bill. In this process it will be worthwhile to demand a white paper on the state level Seeds Corporations. Many such bodies have died unnatural death that was in fact designed by a handful of stakeholders. It is very clear that the agricultural scientists have terribly let-down the Indian farmer. The apogee of this distress has been reached with the Indo-US Joint initiative called Knowledge Initiative in Agriculture (KIA). This has in fact mounted a criminal offence against the moral rights and the economic rights of the hapless farmers. The spurious seeds and spurious pesticides are market driven that has left field level functionaries looking the other way albeit with much support from agricultural scientists. The fundamental question therefore is- Why have we not fully implemented the Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Right Act (PVPFRA) ushered in during 1999-2000? Will an honest response be something like this-'to protect the commercial interests of the agricultural scientists'? This type of response is certainly not a matter of speculation like the futures markets." -- Prof. J. George [Ph.D. Economics, Delhi School of Economics] Chief Promoter-Strategic Economic Management Initiative in Governance (SEMIG) 19/1, Cavalry Lines, University of Delhi Delhi-110007. In BUSINESS STANDARD MNCs will dominate if Seeds Bill adopted: Farmers Associations http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/mncs-will-dominate-if-seeds-bill-adopted-farmers-associations/65912/on New Delhi, June 29 :Several farmers associations, including the Bharat Krishak Samaj, have raised concerns over the Seeds Bill saying it would increase the domination of multi-national seed companies in India and may force farmers to pay royalty on hybrid seeds. "The Indian farmers will lose their rights on using seeds of their choice and it would mainly promote interests of the multi-national firms," BKS Chairman Krishan Bir Chaudhary said. The bill would serve the interests of firms producing genetically modified (GM) seeds in the country, he added, saying the bill may force farmers to pay royalty on hybrid seeds. The government tabled the controversial Seeds Bill in the Rajya Sabha in December 2004 and later it was referred to the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture for review. The standing committee took about two years to review the Bill and had submitted its report in 2006. The report is still pending with the government and is expected to be intoduced in the coming session of Parliament. Chaudhary said the bill would also jeopardise the country's food security. "By continous use of hybrid seeds, the farmers would be gradually obliged to buy seeds from the MNCs," he warned. There is no traditional seed for cotton available in the market, he added. However, supporting the Bill, a former Member of National Commission on Farmers, R B Singh, said it would check illegal selling of hybrid seeds, sold by private players with their own brand names but actually developed by state-owned companies. "As per the bill, there is a provision to do DNA test of the seeds which will help identify the real developer," Singh noted. Greenpeace (India) campaign manager Rajesh Krishna said, "The new bill will promote and facilitate the business of multi-national seed companies." The real motive of the bill is not to provide quality seeds to the farmers. Instead it could result in scarcity of natural seeds, he said, adding that it would lead to a lot of litigation as multi-national seed firms can claim intellectual property rights to the seeds that farmers use. On the litigation issue, Chaudhury added that as per the World Trade Organisation obligations, India had passed Plant Variety Protection and Farmers Rights Act (PVPFRA) under which interests of breeder and farmers have been protected. Chaudhary said in India 'Bt gene' is being used in hybrid varieties, but in countries like China it has only been used to improve the natural seeds so that farmers are not dependent on private companies for hybrid seeds always. |
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