Sidebar: Farmers’ Suicide and Farmers’ Rights Resolution (excerpts)

Passed by The Forum of Farmers Organizations on Globalization and Agriculture, New Delhi, May 30, 1998

The unrest among the Indian farmers… is the evidence that the liberalization of agriculture and the globalization policies have taken its toll…. The feeling of insecurity due to crop failure, land alienation and indebtedness have resulted in an epidemic of suicides by farmers all around the country.

The patent on Basmati rice by a US-based corporation RiceTec Inc. is the latest and most obnoxious example of biopiracy, in which… corporations usurp farmers knowledge and undermine farmers’ rights. RiceTec might use the patent to prevent Indian farmers from growing Basmati or may force them to pay royalties.

But the greatest threat to the Indian agriculture is the opening of the seed sector to the Multinational Corporations and the introduction of Intellectual Property Rights for the seeds and plant varieties.

The new Seed Policy has resulted in a shift from the indigenous varieties of seeds to Green Revolution varieties, which involves a shift from a farming system controlled by peasants to one controlled by the agrochemical and seeds corporations.

The buying of biggest Indian seed company by the US agribusiness giant, Monsanto, presents a latest example of increasing power of the global seed corporations over Indian agriculture.

Farmers’ suicides can only be stopped by strengthening farmers’ rights, which includes freedom to save and exchange seed and freedom from debt…. “Liberalization” that makes farmers pay with their lives must be reviewed.

For further information contact: Afsar H. Jafri [Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, A - 60, Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110 016, Fax: 0091-11-685 6795, 462 6699, vshiva@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in, www.indiaserver.com/betas/vshiva].