Author Archives: Roots for Equity

Punjab declares 10-year wheat seed replacement plan

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LAHORE: The Punjab on Thursday declared its massive wheat seed replacement plan, spanning a decade, to multiply it’s per acre yield by almost three times — from current just under 30 maunds up to 80 maunds.

According to departmental statistics, it has already transported over 70,000 bags and the rest 30,000 bags would be transported in next two to three days, covering all 23,800 villages in the province, and meeting the most propitious sowing deadline of Nov 30.

The seed replacement programme was necessitated as almost all seed varieties currently under usage, which cover 80 per cent of 17.20 million acres, have become susceptible to a variety of diseases, like rust.

According to Punjab Agriculture Minister Farrukh Javed, these 100,000 bags would be sufficient to produce five million bags of seed, which would replace the current seed.

The Punjab plans to take per acre yield to 100 maunds, and the programme is an effort in this regard, he said and added: “The Punjab has spared Rs300 million for the project this year, out of which Rs240 million have gone for seed procurement.”

Envisages three times rise in per acre yield
Under the programme, one progressive farmer in each village would get four bags of seed for free, and would sell multiplied seed in his village from next year.

The department has prepared a data base of around 200,000 progressive farmers for the purpose and 23,800 of them would get four bags each this year. Next year, these farmers would be replaced with another 23,800, and the department hopes to replace the entire seed in next 10 years.

The framers, while praising the move, suggest that instead of providing four bags in each village, the distribution should be linked to acreage in every village. “It would be much more efficient way of seed replacement,” says Muhammad Azam of Narowal district.

There are 811 villages in the Faisalabad district and more than 1,200 in Narowal, but the cropping area in the Faisalabad district is 755,000 acres, whereas it is 400,000 acres in Narowal. Thus the seed requirements of both differ widely, which should be factored in.

The current distribution plan averages out at 165 acres per bag. There are districts like Faisalabad where seed requirement is much more than other districts.

If the Punjab government adjusts its distribution plan according to the acreage, its replacement plan could be shortened to less than 10 years and it is better advised to reconsider the distribution pattern, he said.

“But apart from re-calculating the requirement, the seed replacement plan could, and should, only be welcomed, as it has been long overdue,” says Naeem Hotiana of Pakpattan.

Almost entire range of seeds have become susceptible to diseases and needed to be replaced in the last decade or so. “It is a case of proverbial better late than never.”

He said if the province can triple its yield, as being claimed by the minister, it could easily spare huge acreage for diversification for other crops like vegetable and pulses.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1219571/punjab-declares-10-year-wheat-seed-replacement-plan

Destruction of the Cotton Harvest: A Golden Opportunity for Transnational Corporations?

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 Dr. Azra Talat Sayeed

In Pakistan, newspapers have been rife with news on the pink bollworm attack on the cotton harvest this year. The scenario is indeed disastrous on many accounts. Of course, the very first in line to be caught in the destruction are Pakistan’s millions of small farmers. With cotton being a major cash crop, millions rely on the cotton harvest to provide them with a sizeable amount of their income. In fact, they go heavily into debt to not only buy the cottonseed but also very expensive fertilizers and the many types of pesticides that are sprayed on cotton, without which conventional or genetically modified seeds will not yield a harvest. According to small farmers from Multan and Sahiwal, nearly 90 percent of crop has been destroyed. For farmers who have leased land their loss per acre is approximately Rs 40,000 in Multan. For those, who have their own land loss is about Rs 20,000 per acre.

Another critical point is the amount of pesticides that have been used on the cotton crop this year. A newspaper advisory from the government mentions the ‘correct’ use of pesticides that farmer should be applying on cotton. That is indeed ironical: one of the hypes used for promotion of Bt cotton has been its ability to ward off pest attack. But this year the attack of pink bollworms has put to rest this myth, at least.

For those of us who have long critiqued the promotion of genetically modified seeds one does not know whether to rejoice the failure of the harvest or to mourn the loss of livelihood and further ecological harm that this crop has been able to havoc on the environment?

There are farmers who also feel that this failure can be beneficial to gigantic seed corporations who thrive on their patented very expensive seeds. Next year would be an ideal year for seed giants such as Monsanto to insist on selling very expensive branded Bt Cotton.

According to a farmer from a small farmers alliance namely Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT), this could be a golden opportunity for the push to change from cotton to corn sowing. As we all know, corn is being used for making ethanol. Pioneer, another American company has been promoting the use of certain branded corn varieties that are used for animal feed. The animal dung from these animals yield higher urea content and is considered to be a good source of biogas.

What is the cost of these branded seeds? An example is of hybrid corn seeds in the market. Seeds by Pioneer, Syngenta and Monsanto are priced at Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000 per 10 kg which is what is needed per acre. The ‘beauty of these seeds is that none of them give seed for next year cultivation. Hence the farmer has to buy seeds every year. This was the main pivot for pushing for intellectual property rights on seeds under the TRIPs agreement in the WTO.

At the moment all cottonseed in the market is being sold with out trade marks. For one kilogram of cotton seed the price can vary from Rs 300 to Rs 1500/kg. If women sow seed by hand than at least 3 kg seed is needed; if seed drills are used than 5-8 kg is used. Of course if patented cotton seed is introduced next year, the reason for passing the Amended Seed Act 2015, then there is no doubt that cotton seed costs will jump sky high.

So indeed, the cotton crop failure this year could be exactly the kind of situation that the multinational corporations have been advocating: substandard seed is the cause of the current catostrope. However, it needs to be pointed out that Bt Cotton has suffered a similar fate in India where Bt Cotton seed is very much under patent protection. The Nagpur-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) has confirmed the pink bollworm resistance to Monsanto’s second-generation biotechnology protection Bollgard-II in some parts of Indian Gujarat

So on one hand Pakistan’s agriculture faces crop failure due to malfunctioning hybrid and GM seeds although the corporations continue the propaganda that patented seeds will not give very high yields. On the hand, crop pattern in itself is changing: there is increasing push to grow sugar cane ethanol. According to OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook, Pakistan has increased it ethanol production from 97.2 million litres in 2004 to 321.8 million litres in 2014. Based on newspaper reporting much of the ethanol in Pakistan is being sent to Europe.

There is every chance that corn will also gain ground for ethanol and/or as feed and urea production. If indeed, western countries in their ‘addiction’ to energy are looking for markets for not only their seeds but also land for growing ethanol, then Pakistan’s agricultural production is most probably fall back on colonial production and trade patterns.  We will be once again a cash crop supplier to Europe and other rich nations, as in the days of colonization.

Do our farmers want to be energy suppliers to the oil-guzzling vehicle industry in the North? What about food for our people? What is the cost of producing clean energy for Northern ‘democracies’? What are the chances for equitable land distribution in this current scenario? Will the landlords not be even more strong now? And of course the onslaught of land grabbing will certainly gain momentum to gain maximum profits from oil producing crops not to mention other lucrative corporate agriculture ventures? In how many more ways are we going to suffer from the imperialist nations’ constant plundering from our soils?

‘Seedy’ Business

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ZUBEIDA MUSTAFA
www.zubeidamustafa.com

COTTON growers in southern Punjab are facing a serious crisis. Their crop production has shrunk drastically. The reasons stated, among others, are poor quality seeds and severe pest attack.

These factors can be addressed, provided the will exists. Poor seeds and pest attacks that are interconnected have a causal link with the rapid spread of genetically modified organisms (GMO) that have begun to shake public confidence the world over.

The tide is now turning as demonstrations have been held against GMOs, which shot to fame when they were promoted as the miracle seed to eliminate hunger. But the fact is that hybrid plants in which genomes from different species are mixed are too new and untested a technology to win universal acceptance.

Hybrid plants are too untested a technology to win universal acceptance.
Awareness is growing and people have begun to question the wisdom of genetic modification of seeds to increase agricultural production and pre-empt pest attacks. WHO has also cast doubts on health-related issues linked to GMOs. Many countries have banned their cultivation.

Pakistan has a different story. The GM seed producing biotech multinationals in the country appear to be doing well. Pakistan’s agriculture faces an existential threat as the GMO seeds being used widely in cotton plantation have not been tested rigorously in local conditions. Their impact is not fully understood.

This makes our economy very vulnerable as nearly 70pc of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood with cotton occupying a pivotal place. It constitutes 10pc of the GDP, while cotton exports account for 55pc of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

Pakistan’s GMO story is a relatively new one. Yet we failed to learn from the terrible experience of others who jumped onto the GMO bandwagon before us. Bt cotton seeds were smuggled into Pakistan in 2005. In the absence of a legal regulatory framework for the transfer and use of genetically modified seeds in the country, this was risky business especially in light of the earlier news of peasant suicides in India.

The authorities proceeded to approve Bt cotton for planting in Pakistan in 2010. By the government’s own admission — the illegality of the process notwithstanding — by then the GM brand of cotton was covering 60pc of Pakistan’s cotton acreage. Today, that figure is said to be 85 pc. Matters have now taken a serious turn. Ignoring the advice of experts for strong regulatory oversight, the government took up in 2014 24 pending applications for commercial licences for Bt cotton and genetically modified corn.

It appears to be going all out to accommodate the seed manufacturers that included biotech multinationals. A court battle has, meanwhile, ensued that has acted somewhat as a dampener, and no new licences have been issued recently. But Bt has penetrated the seed sector in a big way.

Ground-breaking research on GMOs by Tahir Hasnain, an agriculture expert, should explode many myths. He writes that cultivating Bt cotton is more expensive. The price of seeds is higher and the greater need for fertiliser, water and pesticides pushes up the costs. Ironically, new pests have emerged as the genetically modified varieties of cotton that have a low expression of the required toxins make the bugs resistant to them. GM was supposed to minimise pest attacks. Now the sale of pesticide manufactured by the same biotech companies has shot up.

A new phenomenon which could have grim repercussions is the shift to cash crops away from food that is beginning to take place on account of different harvesting seasons of GMOs leaving no time for wheat sowing. In 2014-15, wheat production declined in Pakistan. Mean­while, cotton has failed to reach the production level it had achieved in 2004, before the advent of the age of Bt.

The government is protecting the interests of the biotech multinationals whose financially underpinned ‘lobbying’ powers match the capacity of our policymakers to accept ‘favours’. The parliamentarians have been no different and have adopted a bill amending the Seeds Act, 1976, to “improve the existing law so as to enable it to meet the requirements of the modern seed industry”.

Pressure for change comes from the US which wants Pakistan to meet its ‘obligations’ under WTO regulations and create a larger market for the private seed producers. Previously, seed manufacturing was primarily in the public sector, The amended law now opens the door to giant biotech companies to enter the Pakistan seed market.

Since much of the criticism focuses on the absence of research and tests on the Bt cotton seeds in local conditions, in 2011 the US paid $5.5 million to Pakistani agricultural institutes to do research on Bt cotton. Unsurprisingly, this has produced no results.

Bt cotton is a good example of how corporate domination is secured by circumventing weak regulatory mechanisms and manipulating the corrupt ruling classes who are co-opted as lobbyists to pave the way for corporate goals.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2015

http://www.dawn.com/news/1219280/seedy-business

Capitalist Agriculture caused Hunger

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October 16, 2015

World Hunger Day (Press Release)

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been celebrating 16 October as World Food Day from the past 70 years. This year it’s slogan for the World Food Day is “Agriculture and Social Security.”

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity along with other farmer movements and organizations like the Asian Peasant Collision (APC) and Pesticides Action Network (PAN AP) observers the World Food Day as World Hunger day. Even today, 60% of Pakistani population does not have food security, whereas 50% women suffer from anemia. In Pakistan 35% of small children die from malnutrition, and 50% of children less than 5 years suffer from stunting.

For the World Hunger Day, PKMT had organized a protest in front of the TMA Hall, Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkwa. Various PKMT leaders including Raja Mujeeb, Tariq Mahmood, Fayaz Ahmed, Altaf Hussain and Wali Haider spoke against the prevailing hunger in the country. It is a bitter truth that in an agricultural country like Pakistan, farmers are facing hunger because more than 70 percent of them are landless. Landlessness and exploitation of farmers is entrenched in the semi-feudal structure of the economy and encroaching capitalist policies.  Land grabbing through government support for corporate agriculture is increasing across the country.

Climate change is also a critical reason behind increasing hunger and food insecurity. The carbon emissions from industrial production in capitalist economies are a prime reason for Pakistan being one of the most vulnerable countries impacted from climate change. In the previous years, farmers have been facing debilitating economic loss due to yearly floods causing destruction of crops and loss of livestock. Tharparkar is facing acute drought that has killed thousands of children and livestock. Almost 40 percent of the population has had to move in search of food and livelihood.

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The elitist Pakistani government in collusion with International organizations, first world governments and the hegemonic international corporate sector are promoting trade liberalization. An example is the approval of the Seed Amendment Act 2015 that protects the interests of the agro-chemical corporations and allows the spread of genetically modified seeds in the country. The approval of this draconian law will take away the right of farmers to save and develop seeds: in this scenario how can they ensure food security in the country? Neoliberal policies have already pushed small and landless farmers into debt making them dependent on agro-chemical corporations.  The increased production prices have pushed many farmers to migrate in search of other livelihood.

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Pakistan is being forced to accept alternate fuel technologies. These include agro fuel crops such as sugar cane and maize; large tracts of land are being used for installation of solar and wind energy projects. All of this will lead to further shortage of land and food and can only exacerbate hunger!

Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek and Roots for Equity demand an end to Feudalism and Corporate Farming. In order to attain food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture it is critically important that equitable distribution of land amongst small and landless farmers is carried out. In addition, all decision making and implementation of agriculture policies must be in the hands of small and landless farmers!

PKMT and Roots also hold a protest in front of Sukkur Press club, Sindh on the eve of World Hunger Day on 16th October, 2015. PKMT leaders Ali Gohar, Ali Nawaz, Hakim Gul, Mohammd Azim, Gul Hassan spoken to the protest and highlighted the issue of small and landless farmers in Sindh. They demanded Genuine Agrarian Reforms and also rejected the recently passed Seed Amended Bill 2015.

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Released by: Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek and Roots for Equity

GOOD NEWS?

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Engro fertilizers has published this advertisement in the Urdu Daily “Roznama Jang” on October 21, 2015. It declares the following: “Good News: A subsidy has been announced on fertilizers.”

jang 21 octEngro declares that it is are very thankful to the Prime Minister Mian  Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Mr Sikander Hyat Bosan for announcing a subsidy on fertilizers. This step will result in prosperity for all farmers in the country.

The advertisement read: “ We are announcing that because of the subsidy the cost of various Engro fertilizers will be reduced.” The advertisement then provides a list of six engro products with their reduced price list.  However, the list only provides a reduction amount, for example that DAP will now be sold at Rs 500 less for each bag. The original cost of the DAP bag is missing. Hence the corporation can easily raise the price and then declare a subsidy – otherwise why did this advertisement not provide the cost per bag – which would make it easy for farmers at the retail stores to demand a particular price for the products.

It quite clear that this package is hoodwinking not only the farmers but the entire nation. The subsidy will only be truly beneficial to the big land lords and of course Engro itself. According to the news in The Express Tribune 23 September 15, the subsidy is given directly to the fertilizer companies and they will set the price according to the subsidy given to them. So, the subsidy ensures that Engro retains its high profit margin – which for the last three-months profits ending June 2015 was declared to be Rs.4.05 billion after taxes – or an increase in profits by 109%.

The small farmer will lose on many accounts: First, even after the subsidy the cost is astronomicalfor purchasing various chemical fertilizers including urea and DAP. In addition, pesticides, hybrid seeds, tube well charges, diesel are all very expensive for the small and landless farmers. So, this chemically-intensive farming methods will only lead to massive debts for farmers which has been the pattern now for many many years. Second, this chemical intensive agriculture production is extremely hazardous for the environment: leading to contamination of our farmlands, water sources, livestock, and the entire food chain. The productivity and fertility of our lands are decreasing day by day. Third: the impact of fertilizers and pesticides is extremely harmful to the health of the communities across the nation, whether urban or rural.

So, no doubt the subsidy is for the rich and powerful!

Arabian Sea eating up 100 acres of Sindh land daily

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Two cities almost vanish from the planet; fishermen leaders stress adoption of preventive measures

Usman Manzoor

KETI BANDER: Such is the effect of climate change on Pakistan that the Arabian Sea has eaten up the country’s two cities along the coastal belt and is eating up almost 100 acres of land on a daily basis. The two tehsils of District Thatta, i.e. Kharo Chan and Keti Bander, have almost been eliminated from the planet in the past three decades and now only a few thousand fishermen reside along the coastal belt of Keti Bander and Kharo Chan, who too have been badly hit by food insecurity.

The sea erosion has not only submerged the two cities but has also destroyed fertile lands measuring approximately 1.5 million acres in Districts Thatta and Badin. The sea has eaten up about 3.5 million acres of land since the 1980s and is eating up about 100 acres on a daily basis, said Muhammad Ali Shah, chairman of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, while explaining the issues regarding sea erosion and the ever-depleting marine life.

Shah, who has been jailed many a times fighting for the cause of the fishermen, is highly respected among the community of the fishermen.

Muhammad Ali Shah, in a meeting at the headquarters of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, explained that Thatta faces sea erosion issues, Badin faces both, sea intrusion and issues arising out of the Left Bank Out-fall Drain (LBOD) which instead of falling into Lake Shakur has been linked with the Tidal canal (the canal which allows seawater to flow upstream during high tides). Shah explained that when the water from LBOD collides with the Tidal canal, the corresponding fertile lands get inundated because of breaches thus resulting in mass destruction. He added that in Karachi, the massive cutting of mangroves is also causing a similar situation, and the marine life has depleted, thus causing issues of food security as well.

Mustafa Gurgaiz, a water expert and the President of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, told The News at Keti Bander that the city of Keti Bander has been eaten up by the sea twice before, and on both occasions people shifted to the coastline and inhabited a new Keti Bander, and it is the third time that the city has been submerged in the sea.

He explained that because of less or no downstream water in the Indus River to go into the sea has caused sea erosion on a massive scale. “The minimum requirement is 35 Million Acre Feet (MAF) per annum to go through the Indus River into the sea to avoid any further sea erosion,” said the expert adding: “But more than 3.5 million MAF water goes into the sea during the flood season i.e. in one week, and what happens during the rest of the year is that the Indus remains dry and sea encroaches the coastal line.”

He maintained that 3.5 MAF water should be released on average basis round the year to save the cities of Sindh from being eaten up by the sea. Gurgaiz held that more than 50 percent land of Keti Bander and Kharo Chan has been submerged while the rest destroyed by salinity.

This correspondent has met many farmers and people who have documents of ownership of hundreds of acres of land but on site there is only sea. Many such people, who were rich two decades ago, have been literally in rags now.

About the solution to the ever worsening situation, Mustafa Gurgaiz said that at least 3.5 MAF water should be left in the Indus River to go into the sea so that more sea erosion does not happen. Secondly, the faulty structure of LBOD should also be mended and it should be either linked with Shakur Lake or somewhere else but not with the Tidal canal. He explained that Shakur Lake is co-owned by India and Pakistan as India owns about 90 percent of it and Pakistan owns the rest 10 percent and because of Indian diplomacy, the lake was declared an environmentally protected place which made the basis of change in design of the LBOD. He held that if the drain has to go through the Tidal canal then the water discharged in it should be treated first instead of releasing toxic and agriculture waste in the LBOD which harms the marine life and also destroys fertile lands when it inundates agriculture lands after colliding with tidal water from the sea.

Abdul Qadir Chandio, a representative of the Sindh government’s Social Welfare Department who also deals with the organizations dealing with the issues of climate change, while explaining the issues said that the faulty design of the LBOD has caused a major problem, and efforts are on to overcome this problem.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-39899-Arabian-Sea-eating-up-100-acres-of-Sindh-land-daily

Pakistan Signs 43-Year-Lease for Its New Port with China

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 By Chan Lv (People’s Daily Online) 03:13, September 10, 2015

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Gwadar Port Authority has rented 923 hectare (2,300 acre) to China for developing the first special economic zone (SEZ) of the port, according to AFP.

Analysis shows that the establishment of the SEZ will set model for Pakistan economic development.

Gwadar Port is a deep-water port situated in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Upon the request of Pakistan, China aided the construction both financially and technically. The infrastructure construction started in March, 2002 and completed in February, 2015.

The port is a key transportation pivot in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“I think the biggest benefit for Pakistan is economic interconnection,” says Masood Khan, previous Pakistan ambassador to China. According to him, in order to encourage domestic and foreign investment into SEZ, Pakistan government has granted SEZ with priority access to resources and preferential tax policies to investors.

Besides Gwadar Port cooperation, China and Pakistan also published a joint declaration on April 20th, where both parties are to impel the construction of economic corridor connecting Gwadar to China’s Xinjiang via roads and railways, as well as the collaboration on various energy power projects. Both parties believe the economic corridor will act as a crucial bridge for China’s One Belt, One Road policy.

http://en.people.cn/n/2015/0910/c90000-8947932.html

IPRs for Farmers

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Role of Agricultural Intermediaries

A number of state agencies and non-governmental organisations have come forward to facilitate farmers/breeders to register their crop varieties and obtain plant variety certifi cates. But can these agencies bring forth a change in the mindset of the small farmers and seed savers’ groups who view the current intellectual property regime with scepticism and continue to keep away from it?

Shalini Bhutani (shalinibhutani@hotmail.com) is a legal researcher and policy analyst based in Delhi.

Intermediaries are known to be persons or organisations that act as a link between the supplier and the end user. They are a third party in the exchange. The intermediaries ordinarily associated with India’s agriculture are those that bring farmers’ produce to the marketplace. These typically include commission agents, millers, wholesalers and retailers at different stages of the supply chain.

Another parallel supply chain has been established in Indian agriculture through an intellectual property (IP) law—a knowledge supply chain. This is under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001. The act grants IP protection in the form of plant variety certificates (PVC) to farmers/breeders. To be able to grant this IP protection, it first needs to bring the seed know-how onto its record books, in this case the official register of varieties maintained at New Delhi. It also requires the farmer to deposit in the National Gene Bank a sample of the seed or parental line seeds. This entire process supplies farmers’ seed knowledge and physical planting material from India’s farms previously not always accessible to the official system. To enable the process, a different set of intermediaries has come into play.

The implementation of the act began in 2003 with the PPV&FR rules issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. Following which, the PPV&FR Authority was set up in Delhi in 2005. The body began to receive applications for plant variety protection (PVP) in 2007. Since the screening involves a two-year process, the first registrations of plant varieties under this law began in 2009. Since then, several hundred farmers’ varieties (FV) have also either been granted PVCs, or are being tested for the grant of such IP protection. But this would not have happened sans the state’s hard selling of this IP law to farmers and “training” them on its legal provisions for registering FVs.

Farmers’ Positions

There have been many reasons why a large majority of small farmers and seed-savers’ groups on ground continue to keep away from the IP system in India. Their reasons range from the political [resistance to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the IP standards it prescribes] to the more practical (not knowing how to deal with intimidating procedures of law). It is important to recall here that the PVP law was passed not because farmers in the country asked for it, but because the WTO required a member country to provide IP protection for plant varieties.

Given the above, there has been limited buy-in by farmers of the idea of plant breeder rights, which they see coming from foreign seed companies and governments that foster such agribusinesses. The idea of privatising seed is foreign to farmers in the sense of it coming from the West as well as in terms of being culturally alien to how farmers organise their innovation based on sharing seeds. Knowledge production in agriculture for them has not been about propertising know-how of seeds through IP.

IP protection for living forms such as seeds is and remains a controversial subject in India, as in other parts of the world. To add to the controversy, the only law in the country that supposedly provides for “farmers’ rights” is this IP law.1 Thus farming communities are more divided than united on their position on the PPV&FR Act. Yet there has been a recent spurt in registration of FVs in India. To understand this trend, it is important to examine the role of the new intermediaries.

There are many go-betweens that have voluntarily emerged, helping to link the farmer to the agro–industrial complex where her knowledge is further processed. Those in between work as IP facilitators. These intermediaries are not engaged in buying the farmer’s gathered harvest as the conventional intermediaries did, but in harvesting the intangible—her knowledge. Unlike the supply chains for agricultural produce, the consumer at the end of the line is not an ordinary person but the plant breeding industry—be it public sector institutes or private seed corporations.

The point of deposit is not the mandi (market), but the national PPV&FR Authority. The process entails filing the prescribed documents before the PPV&FR Authority. In fact, both the law and the implementing rules envisage a role for such intermediaries. Section 16(1) of the act authorises any person to make an application on behalf of the farmer/breeder to the authority. As per Rule 25, an application to authorise such a person to register a variety is to be made through Form PV-1 by the farmer/breeder mentioned in Section 16(1).

No fee is required by the Authority for this authorisation form. But it is a different matter that the person so authorised by the farmer might charge for the services he renders to the farmer in filing a PVP application on her/his behalf. Retired agricultural scientists also “help” some farmers do the necessary documentation for filing PVP applications. Some charge a small consultancy amount for their services to the farmer.2 There could be costs to the farmers again if these activities remain invisible. This could go against the spirit of the act, which prescribes that there be no financial costs to the farmer.

Informally, many non-governmental organisations (NGO) also act as IP facilitators for farmers. They assist farmers with the necessary paperwork, literally showing them “how to” register their varieties with the Authority. Dadaji Khobragade, a well-known farmer–breeder from Maharashtra, was encouraged by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) to seek PVP for the paddy he developed. In fact, NIF is further involved in the commercialisation of Dadaji’s paddy variety, having entered into a marketing agreement with a private company.3 Similarly, the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation has also assisted farmer groups in Tamil Nadu to seek PVP for rice varieties developed by them (Prajeesh 2015).

Given the legalese involved and the fact that most of the forms, etc, are either in the English or Hindi language, farmers will continue to need facilitators for their IP management, particularly if they chose to engage with the PPV&FR legislation.

State Agencies

The state itself is actively encouraging farmer–breeders to participate in the IP system. The Authority has harnessed several public agencies for the task; these are state agricultural universities (SAU), Krishi Vigyan Kendras and other Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes. Their role is going to remain critical in this government exercise of IP acculturation of farmers. The Authority, with its limited staff and resources, is not going to be able to reach out to as many farmers as the system wants it to.

The nodal centres designated by the Authority for conducting distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) tests for plant varieties (for example, the Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad and the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack for rice DUS testing) repeatedly double up as venues for farmer trainings to convince the latter to file for PVP.4 The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, under the Ministry of Agriculture, had on 1 November 2006 notified rice as a crop eligible for registration of varieties under the act.5 This meant that the five-year cut-off date to receive applications for FVs was October 2011. By that date, 3,672 applications had been received for FVs. All these are still being processed. The large numbers of applications are not merely evidence of farmer’s innovation in this particular crop, but also of the impact of the campaign undertaken by the state agencies to push farmers to seek IP protection.

There have been many training programmes for farmers organised by the Authority itself, with the sole purpose to have them register their plant varieties. These began in 2008–09. In 2013–14, the Authority conducted 274 such training programmes across different locations in India. This explains the highest number of applications received and granted for FVs during 2013–14 (PPV&FR Authority 2014).

Rewarding Intermediaries

The PPV&FR Authority has now decided to incentivise the IP facilitators to get more farmers to file for PVCs. The decision to do so was taken during the 21st Authority meeting and was endorsed again during the subsequent meeting held in Delhi on 17 April 2015.

The Authority in its 21 Authority Meeting held on 31 October 2014 decided to reward those facilitators from NARS and NGOs with recognition certificate, citation and cash of Rs 10,000 who facilitates filing of at least 100 applications at a time in different crops and for staff of Authority for more than 500 applications at a time. It was decided that such reward may also be extended to Zonal Project Directors, once in their lifetime, who facilitate in filing more than 500 applications through NARS from their zone, organise at least two biodiversity fair and promote community seed banks in tribal regions/agrobiodiversity rich regions.6

The stress on speeding up the registration for FVs is because the process is time-bound. FVs can be registered only within five years from the date of notification of a crop variety. In fact, the time limit was originally set at three years, but given the low response from farmers, it was later extended to five years. Yet again there are little or few guarantees of returns for the farmer post-registration. In the many years since the PPV&FR Act has been in force, not a single case of benefit sharing with farmers has occurred if and when their seeds have been used by the seed industry as base material for developing commercial seed products.

While rewards are being institutionalised for the IP intermediaries, some within the Indian national agricultural research system (NARS) are sceptical about the nature of benefits small farmers will obtain from the PVP system. However, they continue to encourage farmers to file for PVP as a pre-emptive IP protection in order to stake a claim on planting material in India before any of the multinational corporations can do so. The public sector itself is seeking IP protection under this act. The maximum number of varieties registered thus far is of extant varieties—868 out of a total of all 1,773 PVCs issued by the Authority through 2007–15.7 Roughly over 800 of the 868 belong to the public sector, mainly ICAR and other SAUs. The state also seeks IP protection for “new” varieties developed by public plant breeders.

IP Policy

The position of the government on PVP is certainly not a neutral one. It is decisively pro-IP in seed. Thus the unsuspecting farmer cannot hope to get objective guidance on the issue from either the state or the Authority tasked to register PVP. The pros and cons of going down the IP route are perhaps not entirely discussed even within the Government of India and its various departments dealing with the issue. Despite that, the proposed new National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy for India encourages more filings and registrations for PVP by farmers.8In the context of increased FVs, the draft document remarks that “(t)he trends in registration under this Act are very encouraging.” However, no official assessment has been carried out on the socio-economic impacts of registration of FVs on farmers.

In a different scenario, the state would invest in educating its farming communities on the possible consequences, or at least support their capacity building on IP issues so that they are independently able to make informed choices on the subject. The decision of whether to seek PVP or not ultimately needs to be theirs. To be able to decide, real-time experience sharing with small farmers from other countries with PVP laws will also be invaluable. In an ideal situation, the state would create opportunities for such experience sharing. But more importantly, if farmers choose not to file for PVP registration, the state ought to offer another option for the protection of their own seed. This would entail having policies that create a facilitative environment for the continuance of their seed cultures.

In closing, it is observed that seeking IP protection for their crop varieties is not something that comes naturally to farming communities in India. They have to be coaxed by the state to seek protection for their plant varieties. But whether the intermediaries at work will be able to continually sell the idea of IP to the unwilling farmers and make them subscribe to it, is a point that should be considered.

Notes

1 Chapter VI on Farmers’ Rights was not in the original draft of the legislation but retro-fitted due to public pressure before it was passed by the Parliament of India.

2 Disclosed by farmer applicants in personal communication with the author in March 2015.

3 “NIF signs agreement with Kaviraa Solutions to take forward farmer developed plant varieties”, National Innovation Foundation of India Press Note, 9 March 2015, http://nif.org.in/press_more.php?pid=20 (accessed on 25 May 2015).

4 Training-cum-workshop on Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 organised at ICAR–CRRI, Cuttack on 27 March 2015, viewed on 20 June 2015, http://www.crri.nic.in/News/crri_latest_news.htm

5 Gazette Notification SO 1884 E dated 1 November 2006, viewed on 20 June 2015, http://www.plantauthority.gov.in/pdf/gnotifi1316.pdf

6 Minutes of the 22nd Meeting of the Authority held on 17 April 2015 at NASC Complex, Delhi, viewed on 23 May 2015, http://www.plantauthority.gov.in/Minutes/twentytwo.pdf

7 http://www.plantauthority.gov.in/, viewed on 12 July 2015.

8 (First Draft) National IPR Policy 24 December 2014, viewed on 12 July 2015, http://dipp.nic.in/English/Schemes/Intellectual_Property_Rights/IPR_Poli…

References

Prajeesh, P (2015): “Farmers’ Rights to Seeds: Issues in the Indian Law,” Economic & Political Weekly, 21 March, Vol L, No 12.

PPV&FR Authority (2014): “Take It to the Farmer – The Farmers’ Rights through Awareness,” PPV&FR Authority, New Delhi, India, June.

In the Jaws of Climate Change

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It was March 1st when suddenly unexpected flooding in the River Chenab created havoc in the lives of villagers living on the banks of Chenab in Multan District. Small farmers, a vast majority of which were actually leasing land, lost their precious wheat harvest, which was just days away from being harvested. These very farmers had also suffered from the Monsoon floods in September 2014. They had been displaced at that time, then once again in March. And now once again the much-feared monsoon is here. So in essence, in a ten-month period villagers have moved from their abode thrice; for many farmers, they were not able to go back to their original abode as that area was submerged in water. Waters when they receded did so only partially. The poorest, most marginalized have no permanent residence. They are forced to live in areas that is not taken up by others.

The kachaarea farmers, that is riverine belt farmers who live outside the embankments (made by the government to save the agricultural land and communities) watch the rising water levels and anxiously seek news on flood waters coming from upper regions of the country and from across the border in India. For those of us who do not face the daily torture of living next to ‘sleeping dragon’ are oblivious to the anxiety and helplessness of the kachaarea communities.

Most of the farmers living on the river banks are landless – they lease land for the year – paying in the range of Rs 12,000 to Rs 24,000 for the year. If you ask them how much do you pay – their response is not in monetary figures – instead they will say 10 maunds of wheat which is approximately Rs 12,000. Their response tells us that for them, land is food, and to access land is to ensure their food security. However, this must be a very bitter payment given the land is submerged in water for nearly four months of the year. The landlords, irrespective of flooding demand the full payment. The oppression of the feudal system can be seen vividly in the riverine areas. According to a farmer “zamindardariyamaezameendubnaedaega per humkokabhizameennahibataega “(A landlord would rather have his land lost to the river rather than distribute it to the us – the landless).

Apart from the constant exploitation of the landlords, riverine farmers have to deal with many other atrocities and hardships, daily. Now that the water levels are rising, many communities are already separated from the mainland by the formation of small rivers which are cutting across small parts of land and dividing communities. So, small daily chores have now become painstaking – for example taking children to the neighborhood doctor is now no more a walking journey. People have to walk a distance to the newly formed river, catch a boat – get off on the other side, walk some more to reach the doctor’s clinic, or the market place- and then of course the arduous journey back.

Women agricultural workers also face increased hardship: they work throughout the year in the neighbouring fields of their community. With the entire area divided by the encroaching river water, the surrounding farms are no more approachable by foot. So these women end up taking the local boats from one area to the other, sometimes, even taking two boats or in some cases wading through water holding their tools of trade and children – all for a small meager payment in cash or kind. The general trend is to pay women by the day – generally from Rs 120-150 for a six-hour work period. For many of the food crops such as moongi – women will pick a small-pail full. On picking four pails they get one pail as payment. All this in the blistering heat of Multan – where temperatures are reaching the high forties – the scorching sun and immense humidity makes breathing difficult. It is in such extreme temperatures that men and women work to earn enough for that day’s food.

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Hardships

Our team had work in the communities. Of the four villages visited in our two-day work plan, only one village was now accessible by road. For the others we had to use local boats. It was a hot summer day; the sun was shining in its full glory. At the riverside there were many people waiting for the motor boat that was coming nearly every 15-20 minutes carrying passengers to and fro from the two banks.  The small boat was jam packed with mostly farmers, men as well as women along with their children;people were sitting close to each other, uncomfortably. Almost all of them were going for work. On our journey on the way back we had to wait for nearly half-an hour on the bank – on the other side of the small river we could see the boat unloading a lot of stuff which included jute bags filled with some produce, milk men carrying with their milk pails and even men who had ferried their motor bikes to the other side. Finally, the boat came for us and we all piled in. We found that our fellow passengers included 9-10 women with some young girls. They were were coming back from picking arvi, which is a root vegetable. For a full day work, they were paid the usual rate of Rs 120 for the six hour work they had put in. It was interesting to observe that they were more concerned about us riding the boat in such hot weather but did not think about their own hardship. They kept on commenting on why did we found it necessary to do our work on such a hot day? For us urban people it was hot – what about them? They had toiled much more than us.

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A new member of out team was shocked by the circumstances of the people. She had many questions on the suffering of the people. Why is the daily routine of the villagers so tough? Who is responsible for this? And is there no one to feel seethe pain and sufferings of our most hardworking sector, a sector that is responsible for providing food for the entire country? Why do they work so much? And then in return, all that they have is a meager handful of food and with no amenities that would ease their lives! Why?

 As we traveled along with other people in a small boat, a question asked by a woman named Ruquiya underlined the class difference that these marginalized communities face. Her eyes filled with sadness inquired, “we are all humans than why are our conditions so different?”

The question if answered truthfully can only point to the unequal distribution of land where a very small number of people in the country own a majority of the land forcing others to either work as labour or lease land. Both occupations yield a bitter harvest – forcing people to go without all basic needs including food, water, shelter, education and health.

On the second day we went to two other villages again using boats. Our short exposure to the daily hardships of the people gave us a closer view to the enduring hardship of the people. At the same time, it also showed us clearly the ability of our people to survive against such difficult odds. The boat that we took to access the first village was without a motor-boat. It took us about an hour tocross a small distance that would not have taken us more than 10 minutes if we had walked and in a motor boat maybe 15 minutes. Apart from other passengers In the boat, there were 12 agriculture women workers who were going to pick a food crop called moongi. As the boat was pushed off the bank, women kept on calling out to the young children – mostly girls – who had walked with them to the boat, to go back home. It was clear that these women were very uncomfortable leaving their young children at home to fend for themselves: but they had no other option as they had to earn a living or to be more exact, earn the food they would have been able to get as payment in kind.

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During the journey we talked to the women getting details of their work. Of these twelve women, one was a small farmer who had come to collect the women for picking moongi from her land; the total land area was no more than five canals (equivalent to just a bit more than half-an acre of land). Each woman would in the end be hardly able to get even a full pail of moongi in return for her labor.

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After getting down from the boat we drove to toward the next village – about a 15 minute drive.  Then we took a self-made raft to the next bank. Village people hade made it with styrofoam wrapped in cloth and put an old wooden door on the top. The door still had nails and hinges protruding which was unsafe as it was rusty and could cause injury. The ‘boatman’ told us that if pushed he could actually seat 18 people on the raft if they would sit with their backs to each other in a tight fit. We were only five of ous on the raft and still were finding it difficult to balance our selves. We wondered on the ability of these people to make do and survive no matter what. In any case, after the raft journey we again walked a small distance and then another small raft took us to our destination. On the way back, in the first patch of river the raft was there to take us back. But when we got to the next water inlet, there was nothing to take us further. The small raft had gone with a load full of people to another village. So we decided to walk through the water. According to the community people, it was ok to walk through the water if we walked holding hands a forming a long chain of people. The water-bed was muddy and slippery and it took us a while to cross the small water belt.

11745283_1098857003477750_668823290_oWhat was a difficult journey for us was routine for the community people. They face the coming and going of river-inlets every few months; they point to a place under water and say this is where they were living just a few months ago; another patch of land was their abode last year and so on. According to the villagers, in the past years water would only come in to their lands during the monsoon season but now even during the winter months they are not safe.

These two days in the riverine communities made it clear what was it to live in the kacha areas. What is narrated here is basically only the journey to the communities. In the boats we saw people coming and going for various reasons – from daily chores such as household marketing to visiting the doctor or buying medicines or going to work. All of this was in addition to their daily living. In villages we saw people keeping small kitchen gardens for their daily food needs; women were maintaining mulching animal so that they could have milk for their daily consumption.

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One woman was growing red chilies; she had laid them out for drying. According to her, after the chilies have dried she would pound them to make red chili powder that she sold to a shopkeeper. People had laid out nets and fishing hooks so that they could catch fish. In short, all activity was geared to gaining food and/or a meager livelihood.

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The lack of our government in reach to the poorest, most needy was abysmally clear. People would ask us anxiously if there was any news of the flood-waters? How much water was India going to release into our rivers? Has the deal between Nawaz Sharif with Moodi been finalized? The government seems totally ignorant of the daily anxiety of the riverine people. During the March flooding no news media reported on the floods. The government did not make any statement on the destruction in the communities. Farmers lost the wheat harvest which is their food security through the year. Such is the heartlessness of our government.

So then, who is this government for? The rich and the powerful? Those who already have plenty? Those who own vast tracks of land? Those who live in cemented well constructed houses? Those who have so much food in their homes that they don’t even know the cost of wheat flour?