March 29, 2024

Justice for Gemmel

Stellar business, nonpareil

Flourishing trade in spurious GM seeds adds to farmers’ woes

When Arvind Shinde (identify changed), a farmer from Aurangabad purchased a bag of HT cotton seeds from a trader, he was certain of having a bumper crop. However, as seeds unsuccessful to germinate he realised that he was duped by the trader. But he could not sign up a police criticism or approach the Point out federal government for compensation.

Bt cotton is the only Genetically Modified crop accredited for business cultivation in India and, for that reason, cultivation of other unapproved GM crops is banned.

But Shinde even now wishes to go forward with HT cotton and Bt brinjal cultivation. “HT seeds will give bumper crop and will enable me to get paid some gain,” he says confidently. But it is not just Shinde, hundreds of farmers are having GM seeds in the marketplace and quite a few get duped.

Anil Ghanwat, President of Shetkari Sanghatana, the apex farmers’ physique Maharashtra, alleges“Along with HT cotton, Bt brinjal, and now HT soya seeds are also in the black marketplace. The federal government has banned GM crops but GM seeds are offered in the marketplace and farmers are cultivating. About twenty five for each cent of Maharashtra’s cotton cultivation beneath HT cotton. There is a multi-crore marketplace that is working in GM seeds and quite a few companies are by providing spurious GM seeds.”

Ghanwat additional, “ The only alternative to help save farmers from bogus seed companies is to allow the cultivation of GM crop”.

Last calendar year the Union Ministry of Agriculture admitted in the Lok Sabha that couple incidences of suspected open cultivation of Bt brinjal and HT cotton were being reported in Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. The committee appointed by the Section of Biotechnology to look into the manufacturing of Bt cotton seeds with unapproved genes uncovered unapproved cotton was grown, on an typical, on fifteen for each cent of the cotton-cultivable place in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana, and 5 for each cent in Punjab all through the 2017-18 time.

Farmers allege a nexus of federal government officers, seed companies, traders and middlemen working in Gujarat, Telangana and Maharashtra which is enabling market of banned GM seeds.

“The Countrywide Seed Association of India (NSAI) stands with India’s guidelines and not GM vigilantism. The illegal spread of HT BT seeds is a destructive attempt to undermine our sovereignty and contaminate legal cotton seed businesses. We stand for new technology, but not by illegal means” claimed Indra Shekhar Singh, Director – Policy and Outreach, NSAI.

He additional, “ Our member companies have been the worst hit by this contamination, as fly-by-night time operators are sporadically planting HT seeds in their breeding fielding and as a result building them liable for felony prosecution We have now witnessed cases in Maharashtra, Telengana, etc”. NSAI has appealed to the federal government once more to take rigid steps towards these motivated brokers, and also set a new parameter for seed good deal contamination. NSAI additional that Indian seeds companies are the victims and not the culprits.