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Farmer union leaders from 18 states and activists advocating farmers’ rights have written a letter to Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Minister Bhupender Yadav, demanding a national policy on genetically modified (GM) crops.
On August 22, 2024, leaders and members of farmer unions held a one-day meeting in Chandigarh and passed a resolution against GM crops.
“GM organisms (and their products) are unnecessary, unsafe, and unwanted in India’s food and agriculture systems. Farmers in India want sovereign, nature-conserving farming. Modern biotechnology is an expensive and unsafe means to take over and control our agricultural systems with false promises which we cannot and will not allow,” the farmer unions stated in their resolution.
“We will ensure that the national policy to be formulated (on GM crops) is truly a biosecurity conservation policy, which addresses biosecurity as well as socio-economic considerations and has a precautionary approach. This should allow the government to exercise caution, and not impose technology that is risky, dangerous and unnecessary for farmers,” the joint-passed resolution added.
The farmers at the meeting said they are aware of the fact that even 30 years after the commercialisation of the first GM crop in the United States, most countries around the world do not allow GM crop cultivation.
In fact, more areas and regions of the world are imposing bans and severe restrictions on this uncontrolled and irreversible living technology. Fourteen countries that had allowed GM crop cultivation for a few seasons, have now banned the technology. False claims have been proven wrong and promises have been a complete failure.
Organisations advocating farmer rights have been demanding comprehensive consultation as stakeholders in formulating a national policy for GM crops since the order given by a two-member bench of the Supreme Court on July 23.
The bench had ordered the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to develop a national policy on GM crops within four months through public consultation involving all stakeholders and ‘representatives of farmers’.
According to farmer organisations, GM technology has scientifically been proven to have adverse effects on human lives. Changes occurring at the molecular level that further lead to numerous environmental and health impacts (including increased use of chemicals) are a major risk and concern in an already risky profession. The lack of safety of GM crops applies to all crops, including those developed by India’s public sector research bodies and scientists.
Due to widespread rejection of GM crops and foods across the world, India will also lose its global market advantage of being GM-free and will lose its trade security by opting for GM crop cultivation, farmers at the Chandigarh meeting said.
Agricultural livelihoods are also negatively affected. Farmers’ dependence on IPR-based technologies, coupled with corporate monopoly in a situation of rapid market integration by big agri-business capital, is completely unacceptable.
“Such transition of our rich agro-diversity, which is essential to making our profession sustainable and climate-resilient, is unacceptable to us,” the farmers said.
The resolution issued by farmer organisations said that the story of the failure of Bt cotton in India is a classic example of this destructive technology being promoted as a solution.
In Punjab alone, the area under cotton has declined by 46 per cent this year, a testament to the failure of Bt cotton to control pink bollworm and other pests.
Chemical use in cotton cultivation has increased while yields have stagnated or fallen, while almost all cotton seeds are being controlled by the multinational corporation Bayer/Monsanto.
At the same time, corporates are profiting from other related inputs that farmers are forced to buy. Most farm suicides are committed by cotton farmers, and the Indian government itself has admitted in its affidavit in court that Bt cotton has led to an increase in farmer suicides in the country.
The organisations said, “It is of great concern to us that the regulatory regime is inadequate, along with compromised testing and opaqueness. Allowing crop developers to decide what and how they will test is quite worrying. Biosecurity files are kept hidden. The conflicts of interest prevalent in various departments and agencies and regulatory bodies are well known.”
“We are aware of several credible committees, including Parliamentary Standing Committees, which have raised serious issues such as the negative impact of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) crops on rural employment and the permanent contamination of our rich biodiversity. They have sought a comprehensive biosecurity law for India, and not a fast-track clearing house regulation,” they added.
Almost all state governments in the country have adopted a cautious approach towards GM crops and many have made formal policy positions to ban this technology, the resolution stated.
When the Government of India insists on its decision to promote GM crops, farmers have no mechanism to ensure the exercise of their constitutional rights.
There is no accountability and redressal system for those seriously affected by such crops. “It is surprising that on one hand, the Government of India talks about natural/organic farming, and on the other hand about GM crops,” the farmers said in the resolution.
The views of 7,000 stakeholders were heard for more than 25 hours after farmers protested the commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal in 2010. A similar comprehensive consultation should be done again in formulating the national policy on GM crops, according to the resolution.
Apart from Bt cotton, no other GM crop has been approved for the last 22 years.
“We will ensure that the government charts a new path of sovereign agro-ecology and does not add more destructive technologies to our risky businesses. We will also ensure that there is no corporate control over seeds and genetic material through IPR,” the farmers vowed.