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