THE SEEDS BILL 2004: The Seeds of Our Destruction?

– Srilata Swaminathan

The new Seeds Bill 2004, soon proposed to become an Act, has to be seen in the wider context of imperialism’s increasing control over agriculture, over all inputs, over food security and the very sovereignty of nations. In India , both NDA and UPA forces, and the ruling elite they represent, are hand-in-glove with imperialist designs.

The evolution of seeds under imperialism from hybrid varieties to genetically modified seeds (GMs) is part of this imperialist race to control world agriculture. Rather than being used to benefit farmers, science is now being used to break the farmers’ self-sufficiency and make her/him totally dependent on the market (MNCs) for all his/her inputs; hence, aberrations like sterile seeds, ‘terminator’ seeds, or seeds that can only grow with specific chemical inputs etc. With this macro game-plan in mind, US companies set up institutes like IRRI in the Philippines or ICRASAT in Hyderabad after World War II. IRRI’s role was to facilitate US domination and control over the rice-eating populations i.e. all third world countries, by controlling rice seeds. More that 48,000 indigenous Indian varieties of rice seed, painstakingly collected over years, were literally stolen from India by cabinet ministers (like C. Subramaniam) and leading scientists and hijacked to the Philippines . (1)

One of the greatest losses to our society has been the destruction of our indigenous seeds, in order to promote HYV and GM seeds. Agrarian communities in India once had hundreds of rice, maize, bajra, coarse grains and other seed, painstakingly and conscientiously saved, stored and selected by our farmers over centuries. India possessed seeds of all types - disease-resistant, drought-resistant, salinity-resistant, pest-resistant, with specific characteristics to suit every type of climatic and geographic diversity. Our indigenous seeds had a broad genetic base of more than twenty to thirty that ensured their hardiness. They have been destroyed, making way for HYV and GM seeds sold by big companies; these have a narrow genetic base of just 2 or 3 thus making them highly vulnerable to every disease, pest and climatic condition. Moreover, they need 3 to 6 times more water than indigenous seeds required. They are also much more expensive and can only survive with huge doses of chemical fertilisers and pesticides that they soon get immune to: thus necessitating even larger doses of more and more lethal toxins. This makes the cost of production shoot up, and helps to bind farmers in an ever-tightening debt-trap – which in turn results in suicides.

India is seeing a mad race of companies to grow more GM crops such as maize, mustard, sugarcane, sorghum, pigeonpea, chickpea, rice, tomato, brinjal, potato, banana, papaya, cauliflower, oilseeds, castor, soyabean and medicinal plants. GM seeds have the support and blessing of the World Bank, FAO and CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research which is totally dominated by the US and big companies). (2)

The Seeds Bill 2004 that is soon to be passed must be seen in this context. Its objectives are stated clearly in the sub-title of the act which reads: “to provide for regulating the quality of seeds for sale, import and export and to facilitate production and supply of seeds of quality” - what could be more exemplary than that! But its real agenda is something else, so the sub-title should actually read: “How to hand over the regulation of quality of seeds for sale, import and export, and production and supply of seeds of quality, into the hands of the mega MNCs”! In fact, the Seeds Bill 2004 goes against the very grain of the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Act (PPVFR), which was passed by parliament in 2001 in support of farmers but, needless to say, has still not been implemented!

The Seeds Bill 2004 has ten chapters that start out with usual definitions of terms, word and phrases used. Chapter I authorises the setting up a Seed Committee both at centre and at state level, their powers, and the whole bureaucratic rigmarole of functions, procedures, office-bearers, meetings etc. The second chapter deals with the Registration of kinds and varieties of seed. In short, the Committees will maintain a National Register of all seeds that are registered with them and only those that are registered can be legally sold for either sowing or planting. Now comes the interesting part. This Registration Committee will decide which seeds should be registered and which it can refuse to register depending on the quality of the seed (S13). Now, you and I know that in India, this means that if you pay (bribe) them, your seed (however bad its quality) will get registered; and if you can’t or won’t pay up then your seed (no matter how good it is) will just have to stay unregistered/illegal! The rest of the Act is about the technicalities of registration, branding, the right to appeal (who has the time and money for it?), Seed Certification Agencies, seed inspectors and seed- testing and analyses centres will be set up with their own rights. (Again, one questions how effective, viable, efficient and affordable such processes can be to help the ordinary farmer.) The act is full of offences, punishments, revocations, and enough red-tapism to satisfy any babu.

S 21.(1) and (2) are draconian as they say that ‘no producer shall grow or organize the production of seed unless he is registered as such by the State Government under this Act.’ And S. 21(2) stipulates that no person shall maintain a seed processing unit unless such unit is registered by the State Government under this Act’. Now, “seed processing” according to the proposed Act is defined as “the process by which seeds and planting materials are dried, threshed, shelled, ginned or delinted (in cotton), cleaned, graded or treated” in other words every farmer, big and small, is already a seed grower and every farm is already a seed processing unit. So, farmers can be severely penalised just for doing what farming communities have done for centuries.

80% of all seed used in India is grown by local farmers, saved, stored, exchanged and bartered by them. But S.22.(1) is clear that ‘every person who desires to carry on the business of selling, keeping for sale, offering to sell, bartering, import or export or otherwise supply any seed by himself, or by any other person his behalf’ has to be registered! So, what has been a natural right for farmers over millennia is now an illegal act culpable of punishment. The act says that infringement is punishable with 6 months imprisonment, Rs.50,000/- or both!

Registration of seed, in this act, is such a complicated, time consuming and expensive process that very few farmers, even the big ones, will be able to utilise it. In the Seeds Bill 2004 the process of registration is tailor-made for rich corporate houses not for poor farmers. It is also a political weapon that can be used against those who don’t vote for the ruling parties, for political and personal vendettas etc. In fact, it is one more stick with which to beat the peasants. Add to this the fact that certificates and licences can be revoked at the whim of the committees.

S.22, 25 and 38C say one thing while S.43 (1) appears totally contradictory as the former say that no-one can sell, exchange, barter etc. without a registration and licence while the latter allows farmers to sell, exchange, barter etc without registration. Thus the Bill leaves plenty of room for harassment, corruption and political and personal vendettas. Officials under this act have full powers to raid any building, house, store and can break down doors, open any container, confiscate documents and whatever materials they want. In short, the high-handed and ruthless manner that the state machinery has normally used towards the poor for centuries is now being further legitimised by this proposed Act. But with an added proviso that you cannot convict them or file a case against any officer who does anything to you in the execution of his duty! Chapter X, S44 clearly states that ‘No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the Government or any person for anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act.’

The Bill also allows GM seeds to come in to the country with impunity. The act refers to them as ‘transgenic’ seed. Transgenic seeds can be even issued temporary licences for two years while their case is being processed which is an extremely dangerous clause especially when it is linked to S.30 which stipulates that “The Central Government may, on the recommendation of the Committee and by notification, recognise any seed certification agency established in any foreign country, for the purposes of this Act”. So, all the GM seeds registered in the US can find their way to India even while other countries such as EU, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Brazil and some states even in the US, like Vermont and parts of California, are banning them! All are agreed that GM crops do irreparable damage to wild-life, biodiversity and can adversely affect organic and conventional seed through cross-contamination and no proper tests have been done to show their side-effects on man and beast. (7)

Monsanto and other large producers of GM seed are desperate to get into India as they are being forced out of other countries. The giant seed company Bayer has been forced to pull out its GM maize from England due to serious opposition by farmers. The reason was that they could only guarantee the high production they claimed only by using large amounts of the deadly weed-killer called Altrazine which is banned by the EU; further, no insurance company was prepared to cover GM crops. This, even when Bayer had the full support of the Blair government! (8) Monsanto has been forced to stop selling its GM soya in Argentina (its largest market in S. America ) because the thriving black market in soya seeds has undercut it completely! Monsanto had to pull out of the EU over a year back and incurred heavy losses of over $180 million, paid millions in compensation to farmers and had to cut its global workforce by 9%!

The Bill is full of ways and means to curtail the sale of spurious seed and has a detailed bureaucratic process to bring offenders of ‘misbranding’ and spurious claims to court. At the same time, however, the only relief to farmers by way of compensation, is a brief comment in S.20 which says that they can apply for compensation under the Consumer Protection Act 1986! So, all the thousands of farmers in Andhra, Karnataka, Bihar , Orissa and elsewhere who have been reduced to penury by misbranded and spurious seed need not commit suicide – they have the option of getting deeper in debt by approaching consumer courts! Our law-makers must live in cuckoo land if they think that our farmers have the capacity to go to courts and indulge in long costly litigation against immeasurably stronger forces! Besides this, there is not a single word in the Bill about any compensation for cross-contamination of organic and conventional crops from transgenic seeds.

To understand what this Bill portends, it is not enough to just look at the various provisions of the bill but to see the fate of farmers in other countries where similar acts are in place. Speak to farmers like Percy Schmeiser, a farmer in Canada who has been taken to court since 1998 by the giant Monsanto for ‘stealing’ their patent, when he is actually a victim of cross-contamination. (9) Or to Josef Albrecht, an organic farmer in Germany , who developed his own organic seed and is now being fined, penalized and taken to court by the German government for infringing their Seed Act. Then there are the potato growers of Scotland who are being harassed by corporates - one farmer has just had to pay a fine of £30,000 for infringing patents. Speak to Dennis and Becky Winterboer of Iowa , USA , who were fined for bartering. (3)

There are thousands of such cases of ordinary farmers being fined, taken to court and harassed for what has been their natural right over centuries not to mention the thousands who have been taken for a ride by spurious seeds. Farmers, environmentalists, progressives are uniting all over the world to stop these trends. In India , too, we will have to protest and push out these MNC monsters and their deadly GM seeds, chemical poisons and deadly toxins. Maybe we can take a lesson from Argentina and form our own black market for seeds! We need to learn from Bolivia and Venezuela and show a slavish government that we mean business. Indian agriculture is already facing tremendous crises, farmers are being marginalised, the government is totally uninterested in any viable investment in agriculture. The Seeds Bill 2004 along with the new Patent Act are tailor-made to protect the strong and favour those with clout and money while pushing out the small, i.e. big farmers will win over small farmers, big companies over small indigenous companies, macro-chemical giants over local organic products. It will help increase the monopoly control of MNCs, increase the price of seed to unheard of limits, jeopardise the lives and health of every farmer and every consumer through GM seeds and food, help destroy what is left of our seed bank and biodiversity BUT will further the corporatisation of agriculture and increase the profits of MNCs - Vive le Globalisation!!

References:

1. “The Great Gene Robbery” by Claude Alvares

2. “ India Becoming a GM-Trashbin” by Devinder Sharma. Farmer’s Forum May 2004

3. “Seeds of Future Trouble” by Samatak Das

4. “Sowing The Seeds Of Dictatorship” by Vandana Shiva

5. “Send Draft Seed Bill to a JPC” by Suman Sahai. Civil Society April 2005

6. “The Proposed National Seeds Bill and Bt Cotton” by Kavita Kuruganti

7. “Seeds of Despair” by Devinder Sharma

8. Michael Meacher , UK Minister for Environment from 1997-2003 in Farmer’s Forum May 2004

9. “Shmeiser vs. Monsanto” by Lim Li Ching. Third World Resurgence No.169/70