Monthly Archives: May 2016

Tax Free Pesticides

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Muhammad Mujtaba

May 24, 2016

On 24th May 2016, a glance of an advertisement from Pakistan Crop agency in the two major Newspapers of Pakistan, Dawn and Urdu newspaper Jang pass on from my sight. This leads to the combine impression of regret, sadness, anger and astonishment on my heart and mind.  In an advertisement the mentioned association was urging to end general sales tax on the agriculture inputs and agriculture pesticides from Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and federal Minister for Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Boson. The first line of the advertisement shows that “Farmer is in worst condition due to the low rates of commodities” surely there is no doubt in it but question arouses is that Why??

The second line says “the decrease of farmers’ buying power, The cotton crop ruins because of so much increase in the result pesticides’ attack on crop” here, also the question arises that why there is decrease in buying power of farmers and the farmers also faces such loss as they were doing a lot of hard work than before and why pests attack when the pesticides were properly sprayed. In the current productive system the agriculture outputs and, pesticides and other increase the cost of production so much that a small farmer can’t even get his cost of production rather thinking about his profit. According to the statistics  given in the advertisement the financial loss of 125 hundred million rupees, and in the production of these poisonous pesticides, water and environment also become polluted including the land, crops, farmers, cultivators, peasants, consumers and livestock even the birds also get effected by it.

The third line was the most humorous and seems to be the conspiracy to hide the facts. “High prices of agriculture inputs and tax rate make the country’s agriculture stand on the edge of destruction.” In this line the depravity of crops is cleverly imposed on prices and tax rate. In fact the price and tax rate are the sub issues, the real problem is the existence of these inputs and pesticides which lead to and are the reason of destruction of crops, farmer, society, health and environment. The text of this advertisement shows that this advertisement is published on behalf of some big agriculture pesticide and inputs companies because according to this add farmer should purchase  agriculture inputs and pesticides so that companies would get a lot of profit and the official relief in tax rate is to greed the farmer. It should be clear that this organization have believed on the usage of agriculture output and pesticide on crop and keeping aside the destructive element of modern ways of agriculture. The reason behind all of effort for its accomplishment just because this organization is not only supported by some agriculture input companies and pesticide companies but also formed by the officials of these companies. In the front of these facts then why this organization would work for the benefits and rights of cultivators, farmers and farm labors.

A question also arises for the concerned association that the toxic and hazardous for health and environment inputs were used in previous destructed cotton crops then why these crops did not give those much good expected results? Price fluctuation does not affect more or less effect of pesticides. Indeed, these inputs gave those results which were expected and if these practices in agriculture continues in future the result would be more or less same due to use of these toxic and hazardous inputs because it is in their structure. Whenever, farmers would use these inputs abundantly to increase their production it would ultimately increase the profit of companies but the end result would be destruction of land, crop, farmer, health and environment.

If we closely overview the content of advertisement and above mentioned questions then answer would be the farmers are concerned with high price of production not with the amount of agricultural inputs. We strongly appeal to the government and judiciary that stop the import and export of commodities, mill owner’s refusal to buy these commodity, monopoly in market, destructive hybrid and genetically modified seeds and use of agricultural inputs for increasing production. This kind of advertisements are indeed is like misguiding the farmers. We demand from government of Pakistan to take actions against these types of advertisements and organizations as soon as possible.

PCPA

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Statement of the Farmer’s Major Group at UNEA 2 during COW (Committee of Whole)

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May 24, 2016

Respected Chair, Excellences, Delegates. Colleagues from the UN Agencies, Major Groups and the CSOs

I am Wali Haider from Roots for Equity, Pakistan representing farmer major group

Unstainable practice of over extraction and overproduction is at the heart of unsustainable consumption and production. Agriculture and food production being marked as a lucrative sector has resulted in a tsunami of land grabs. At the same time, the pursuance of mega development projects for economic development and climate change mitigations such as mega dams, mining, oil exploration, creation of national parks, high voltage transmission and distribution lines and pursuance of extractive industries and special economic zones in indigenous territories and other rural communities with subsequent militarization process has led to land alienation and destruction of survival sources, cultures and identity of indigenous peoples, small scale farmers, fishing communities.

These patterns of production and consumption are not just wasteful but also increases inequalities. The world consumes more than half the world’s resources, but half the world’s wealth is in the hands of only 2% of the population. Despite millions of tons of food produced each day, with 1.3 billion tons going to waste each year, around 1 billion people worldwide suffer from acute hunger.

We can only speak of sustainable production when natural resource extraction is not defined by the profits earned by corporations, but by the needs of our communities and our peoples to survive, develop, and with a view to ensure their availability for generations to come.

We call upon states to support right to land, promotion and development of traditional occupation that conserves and sustains biological diversity and also brings in livelihoods to communities.  Traditional knowledge systems and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities on agro-ecological farming and diverse production systems that have minimal dependence on chemical and technologies like GMOs, will address reduction in GHG emissions from agriculture. This contributes to attaining sustainable land use, healthy people and healthy environment.  Today these sustainable resource management faces challenges of the unregulated globalized market systems and the invasion of extractive industries.

To minimize adverse impacts of hazardous chemicals on the environment and human health, governments must take measures to achieve by 2020 the sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle as envisioned in the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).  The phase out of marketing and use of highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) and the promotion of and support to sustainable ecological agriculture would greatly contribute to secure a healthy environment and promote good health in both rural and urban communities.

Thank you Madam!

RISKING AGRI-OUTPUT: BIOSAFETY BODY APPROVES GM SEEDS WITHOUT CONSULTATION

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The Express Tribune, May 20th, 2016

Shahzad Anwar

ISLAMABAD: Commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) seeds, which could cause cancer according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been approved without consultation with key stakeholders such as farmers, environmentalists and consumers.

The National Bio-safety Committee (NBC), which examines seed varieties for approval, gave the go-ahead to GM seeds of wheat, peas, sugarcane, potato, mustard, corn and cotton three weeks ago in its 14th meeting.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, most of the cases approved by the NBC were submitted by the institutions whose representatives were also members of its Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

These institutions include National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faisalabad, Central Cotton Research Institute, Multan and Forman Christian College, Lahore. Multinational companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta and Dupont also sought approval for their GM seeds.

In the meeting, Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Sayed Akif Ahmed told the NBC that they had been criticised for not following proper procedures and taking hasty decisions due to growing commercial interest in genetically modified organisms (GMO).

Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Director General Irfan Tariq recalled that the committee had approved 70 GM seeds out of the 119 under scrutiny in its previous meeting. The committee had permitted Monsanto and Dupont to commercially use GM corn without conducting large-scale trials and risk assessments and by by-passing biosafety laws.

The government has now reversed this decision.

Despite the criticism, the committee approved 49 cases of laboratory genetic manipulation, import, field trials and commercialisation of GM crops in the 14th meeting and also gave the green signal to 22 varieties of BT cotton.

The NBC also allowed some companies exemption from field trials of their GM seeds.

According to the documents, the NBC granted approvals according to TAC’s recommendations.

However, anti-GMO lobbyists are questioning the composition of TAC.

“It was a deliberate attempt by the National Bio-safety Committee to engage in low-profile discussions and proceedings on GMOs to avoid any outcry from the farmers and conscious citizens,” a source privy to the matter said.

He added large-scale cultivation of GM corn and BT cotton, a genetically modified variety of cotton which produces an insecticide for bollworm, could potentially threaten local seed varieties through cross-pollination. On the other hand, GMO lobbyists argue that genetically engineered seeds are high yielding and insect resistant.

However, their argument has not withstood the test in countries such as India, China and Australia where the per-acre yield has gradually dropped and new pests have emerged.

These countries have now banned cultivation of GM corn or other transgenic food crops.

The source said there were similarities in agro-climatic conditions between some Indian states such as Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, and Pakistan where BT cotton was being cultivated.

He said more than 86% of BT cotton was cultivated in Sindh and Punjab where pink bollworm infestation had been reported since 2011.

He said Pakistan had failed to meet its cotton production target of 15 million bales in 2015-16 and had only harvested 9.5 million bales.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1106701/risking-agri-output-biosafety-body-approves-gm-seeds-without-consultation/