Give them their rights..........

Odisha is a well known name in India for its minerals, forest, heritage and its tribes. Of all the states of India, it has the largest number of tribes, as many as 62 in the terms of percentage. These tribes mainly inhabit south & north Odisha. More than half of their population is concerned in Rayagada, Koraput, Malkanagiri, Mayurbhanj & Sundergarh. Tribal culture in its pristine state is rich and distinctive and the Adivasis (Tribal) work hard to preserve it. A tribal village manages its internal dealings very smoothly through two institutions – the village council of elders and the youth dormitory. In a parliamentary system of government, marginalized, vulnerable and rural local people derive their power, function and responsibilities from the state government. This paves the way for proper delineations of function and power of the latter, for a smooth flow of funds from state government and also ensure community involvement activities, rejuvenating a structure in the name of governance that has lain dormant for 60 years. However when the Panchayati Raj System (PRS) is concerned, the basic concept is that the villagers should think, decide and act for their own socio-economic interests. Thus Panchayati Raj Act is related to village self-governance, where the people in the form of an organization will think, decide and act for their collective interest. Self-government allows us to decide about ourselves without hampering others’ interest. Whenever we talk about collective benefit one point is clear that there is no conflict between the villagers, collective interest on one side and societal & national interest on the other, rather are complementary. But in real sense it is quite contradictory to its objective.

Among the local communities the present Panchayati Raj system, which is the part of local governance suppose to signify the local aspiration & priorities and evolves development programmes to meet the local needs. However, in reality in the both village & Panchayat level the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) are being represented by the local elites where the voices of vulnerable section have suppressed, has resulted they become more vulnerable & marginalized. For example; the high budgeted projects like MNRGES , which has made it mandatory to provide hundred days employment and create such durable alternatives for local communities to strengthen their livelihood has failed to mitigate their problems. This project is only confined with in road preparation sacrificing with local priorities. In the local village council i.e Gram Sabha & Palli Sabha meetings, it seems this is run as with a predicated agenda. In such type of meetings the voices of marginalized groups are suppressed by the elite group and they are considered as a passive witness of the whole process. Many times it seems that the local people keep themselves away from these meetings and are busy in searching for alternatives for their livelihoods. Sharpening the past records, each village in the tribal pockets of Odisha has their own governance system as discussed earlier; apart from this they also have their own structures for using common properties and natural resource management. However, today they are absolutely laying dormant in Panchayati Raj system.

Government should put few efforts to draw interests to provide them their rights within an appropriate legal frame. As of now we are imposing our needs by saying, ‘their needs’. We have to draw a line in between our and their aspirations. Number of times it shows, the marginalized communities or vulnerable communities stayed far beyond the advantage of the government projects. It is only happening due to lack of government’s as well as our interest. No doubt, India has implemented a large number of development projects for these marginalized & tribal communities but still problems exist. I do not understand why every government plan laid dormant after a couple of years that it is started? Perhaps it is only because we could not give respect to their aspirations and maybe we failed to articulate their needs. Government needs to develop accurate mechanism to address the issues of the common man, through this only we can empower the local communities with their decision making power.

Will GM food help to reduce hunger in India?

It has been proved that “Genetically Engineered food products are not equal to the non-genetically engineered food products. Still few people have a delusion that it will help in high yield and reduce hunger within the poor communities of India.”

If hunger could be addressed by technology, then green revolution would have done it approximately 45 years ago. It is nothing but under enormous pressure from the biotechnology industry over government to allow GM crops. These companies have the financial resources to mobilize scientific opinion as well as political support. If in the real sense GM food helps the poor Indian farmer to improve sustainability in agriculture then India would have been able to create a unique model of agriculture where farmers are not forced to commit suicide.
Two years back, India had a record of food grain surplus of 65 million tonnes. But it was not being fed to the 320 million people, who failed to arrange one square of meal. On the other hand our government is discussing on the issue of GM approval to reduce hunger. With this knowledge, government giving permits to the corporate to take control over our agriculture & food system. As all we know, MNCs are not promoting these GM seed aiming to wipe poverty & hunger; they only keep their eyes on the local food system to extend control over it. As mentioned earlier, if India has surplus food grains then what is the use to promote GM food or seed? We do not need GM food; we only need an accurate strategy to manage our resources & traditional pattern of agriculture. In the name of poverty & hunger MNCs like Monsanto plan to shake our economy. On the other side the government is preparing to introduce China GM rice in five states. May be the government has learnt no lesson from the past experiences.
Wake up!!!
Say No to GM food……
Mansoon Mohanty
Living Farms, Bhubaneswar

Seeds Bill-2010 and Rights of Farmers

With the modernization of agriculture, agricultural practices and cropping patterns changed. As a result, the genetic base of traditional seed varieties reduced considerably and several of them are now facing extinction. These varieties were intrinsically more attuned with local farming conditions, economically practical and environmentally sustainable than the seeds sales by the MNCs, used today. To extract more profit as well as to improve control on the food system of the local farmers, multinational seed companies and national corporations are selling genetically modified seeds in high rates, increasing the cost of agricultural inputs exorbitantly.

The Seeds Bill 2004 with latest amendments was introduced in Rajya Sabha on 23rd April, 2010 and likely to get Parliament approval during this session. The Government is keen to introduce this bill, aims to at regulating the quality of seeds for sale, import and export and to facilitate production and supply of good quality seeds, astonishingly compromises with the right of the farmers to grow, sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell their farm seeds. At the other side it has also expanded the definition of a ‘farmer’ to include all those who conserve or preserve, severally or jointly with any person, any traditional varieties or adds value to such traditional varieties through selection and identification of their useful properties. This Bill is nothing more than to protect the interests of multinational seed companies. The government has learnt no lessons from the past experiences, where these MNCs cheated cotton farmers with spurious seeds.

India, where farmers sustain their life in a monthly average income of 2000 rupees shall expect to purchase industry driven manipulated seeds, not replicable and that too at unaffordable costs after the “Seeds bill- 2010” came into force because there is no space of provision for price control in this bill. At present, companies are charging prices at will and that too without any rationale. Tomato seed price for instance varies between Rs 475 to Rs 76,000 per kg, Brinjal seed price between Rs 1760 to Rs. 9730, Bhendi seed price between Rs. 170 to Rs. 1425 and Capsicum seed price between Rs 3,670 to Rs 65,200 a kg (source: http://www.aphorticulture.com). More recently, seed companies have taken the Andhra Pradesh government to the High Court challenging its decision to regulate prices and royalty. Therefore, the function of the Seed Committee under the Seed Bill must include power to decide on price and price controls (including royalties).

The new Bill is drafted to benefited multinational seed companies, as evident from its stated objective, outlined by the Union Ministry of Agriculture, i.e. (i) to create facilitative climate for growth of seed industry, (ii) enhance seed replacement rates for various crops and (iii) boost the export of seeds and encourage import of useful germplasm, and (iv) create conducive atmosphere for application of frontier sciences in varietals development and for enhanced investment in research and development. The objectives and reasons for the Bill also clearly stated that the proposed legislation provides for increasing private participation in seed production, distribution, certification and seed testing. Our seed law must ensure that the seeds produced by farming communities (Farmer Varieties) are treated at par with seeds produced by companies. The law must provide for a transparent system of seed testing and evaluation of performance so that the farmers get good quality seed and the nation’s goals of agricultural and food productions are met in the most effective manner. So we do need a Seeds Act but we do not need this one.

Farmers’ rights are an ecological, economic, cultural and political imperative. Without community rights, agricultural communities cannot protect agricultural biodiversity. This biodiversity is necessary not just for the ecological insurance of agriculture. Rights to agricultural biodiversity are also an economic imperative because without it our farmers and our country will loose their freedom and options for survival. As a final point, without farmers’ rights, there is no political mechanism to limit monopolies in agriculture and inevitable consequence of displacement, hunger and famine that will follow total monopoly control over food production and consumption through the monopoly ownership over seed.

Mansoon Mohanty
Living Farms, Bhubaneswar