Letters

Published on
Core issues
G V Reddy
gvr1960@yahoo.com
Down To Earth
Praveen Bhargav
pbsolus@vsnl.com
vinod
watchingvinod@yahoo.co.in
Nature's fury
Down To Earth
Vasek Pouska
taxus@bf.jcu.cz...

Clean policy

In my opinion, the Clean Development Mechanism must be essentially an instrument to combat climate change and thus contribute to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas emissions ('Newest biggest deal', Down To Earth, November 15, 2005).

In order to prevent the adoption of fraudulent and corrupt practices, governments should establish a regulatory framework, which will benefit countries in both the developing South and the industrialised North.

Francisco Salles
fran_salles@uol.com.br

Solar water heaters have become increasingly popular in homes, hotels and other buildings, to save electric power and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Government offers subsidy in initial cost and in some states, the power generating authority offers rebate on the electricity bill for such installations. This is a welcome trend.

However, Canara Bank (a public sector bank) has offered to provide cash subsidy for solar water heater installations by trading certified emission reduction with any one of 37 industrially advanced countries under the Kyoto Protocol. This means that individuals in India can sell their reduction of carbon emissions with the help of the government so that the developed countries can emit that much more pollution.

The installation of solar water heaters is to reduce (global) pollution. Therefore, selling this reduction so that another country can pollute the atmosphere by an equivalent amount is, to my mind, unethical.

S G Vombatkere
sgvombatkere@hotmail.com...

'No' to dam

We are disappointed with your coverage of the resistance to Polavaram dam. People's resistance to such large projects is necessarily complex and subtle. While the article 'Get out' (Down To Earth, November 30, 2005) makes a passing reference to the protests against the dam by Adivasi communities in Khammam, West Godavari and East Godavari, the coverage in the December 31, 2005 issue of dte, is a complete misrepresentation of the movement against the dam.

By saying that the Andhra Pradesh government has finally bowed to pressure from families to come up with a modified rehabilitation package for the project-affected families, thereby implying that this has fulfilled peoples demand, is a far cry from reality. Their demand is not for a better rehabilitation package but a strong "No" to the dam. The following points illustrate the vibrancy and strength of the movement:

l Strong grassroots mobilisation by youth groups in Khammam district has forced the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to reconsider its ambivalent position on the dam. Local leaders of the party are now completely opposed to the dam while state and national level leaders continue to play around with demands like height reduction and complete rehabilitation

People's committees in Khammam, East and West Godavari districts are raising larger questions about the purpose of the dam and its relationship to the growth corridors along the coast where massive domestic and foreign investments in industrial and tourism infrastructure are being made at the expense of fishing communities.

The Polavaram dam cannot be understood outside its geohistoric specificity. While Narmada Bachao Andolan raised many important issues, resistance to Polavaram is moving ahead very creatively and attempting to articulate a new sets of questions.

Anantha Krishna and Sagari R Ramdas
sagari.ramdas@gmail.com

Down To Earth welcomes letters, responses and other contributions from readers. We particularly welcome you to join issues and share your opinion with others. Send to Sunita Narain, Editor, Down To Earth, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 062. Email: editor@downtoearth.org.in...

Wild discovery

During a trip to India in November 2005, I could follow the jungle patrol of Periyar, mentioned in your story
('Once poachers now guards', Down To Earth, August 15, 2005).

It was an adventurous journey. I discovered the jungle and the wildlife.

It was also a true human meeting with the poachers-turned-guards. They told me the story of their life which I found touching.

I would also like to say I learn much from your articles.

Jrme Fauconnet
jejetox@yahoo.fr...

Farm reforms

The interview of the grandfather of India's green revolution, M S Swaminathan ('Farmers income is more important than foodgrain production', Down To Earth, December 31, 2005), brings into relief the piecemeal approach adopted by the Indian government in reforming the entire farm sector -- from land tenures, to public investment in the farm sector, to technology transfer and other inputs to the final product price to benefit the farmer.

The National Commission for Farmers (ncf) is trying its best to bring relief to the families left behind by the "farmer suicides". But this is just a relief and not a structural reform of the farm sector, which is what is urgently required to prevent farmer suicides.

It is unfortunate that the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (icar) is still hanging on to its outdated farm technologies. At the All India Conference of Krishi Vigyan Kendras held in October, 2005, the head of icar presented many technologies developed by its scientists. But hardly 30 per cent of these technologies have been accepted by the farmers. Not one word was said in the conference on the emerging gm crop technologies, particularly gm cotton. The so-called illegal Bt cotton seeds sold like hot cakes in Gujarat and as many as 1.9 million acres (0.77 million hectares) have been sown in the current season with the so-called illegal Bt cotton seeds. What is it that icar or the state is doing to help the farmers to make choices on gm technologies? Farmers are hungry for the income-generating crop technologies.

In the absence of vibrant state agriculture departments, the seed and input sellers are having a field day. The outmoded agricultural produce market committees in the states do not allow the global markets to penetrate their turf to offer a better price to the farmers.

Let us hope ncf will be given more teeth to reform the entire farm sector to keep pace with the changing worldwide farm sector dimensions which include technologies, prices, trade and commerce.

Manu N Kulkarni
manukulkarni@yahoo.com.

Crop failures resulting from bad agronomic advice can lead to farmers committing suicide. For example, many a times farmers are advised to rely on a certain pesticide or cultivar (to buy which they often have to take loans) and grow crops in areas where and seasons when major pests/diseases proliferate. When harvests do not come up to expectation, frustration sets in.

One cannot rule out the role of hybrid cultivars and tissue culture in boosting yield. But what mars the terminator seed technology and tissue culture is the inability of the farmers to produce their own seeds/planting material for the next season. This forces them to be at the mercy of seed companies. In such a scenario, it is gratifying to note that the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation is setting up Village Resource Centres in selected villages where farmers have committed suicide.

At such centres, the emphasis should be on a dialogue with families affected by suicides to ascertain the precise causes leading to such an act. It is also necessary to know as to why all farmers faced with the same problem do not take the extreme step. This will help find out the measures that should be taken to check suicides. The state governments, on their part, should arrange to
(i) educate the farmers on the pitfalls of hybrid seeds and tissue culture
(ii) encourage and guide farmers to set up cooperative seed farms in their areas
(iii) buy seeds from such cooperative seed farms and
(iv) supply, unde.

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