1.Argentina to fight Monsanto in court, suspend soybean talks
2.Spurious Bt cotton seeds flood markets; Monsanto's business hurt
3.As you sow, so shall you weep
COMMENT
Many believe Monsanto in its desperation to push adoption in the south either turned a blind eye or even played a part in encouraging the clandestine distribution of GM seeds in India and South America. Some even suggest that some of the clandestine Bt seeds perform better than Monsanto's and that this has at times helped to mask some of the poor performance of Monsanto's products. Farmers are often finding themselves damaged either way, not least when they are being made to pay through the nose for seeds. And Monsanto is finding itself in an increasing quagmire in its heavy-handed attempts to establish the kind of punitive monopoly it successfully operates in North America.
EXCERPTS: "Monsanto has shown that it continues to be a national embarrassment," Argentina's Agriculture Secretary Miguel Campos (item 1)
Farmers also scoff at the government raids. "They're doing that more for Monsanto than for us. Where are the raids on the non-BT fakes?" The four raids in Yavatmal have all been on dealers in illegal BT cotton. (item 3)
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1.Argentina to fight Monsanto in court, suspend soybean talks
TAOS TURNER
Associated Press, July 1 2005
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/12036471.htm
BUENOS AIRES - Argentina, a leading soybean exporter, is suspending talks with U.S. biotechnology company Monsanto Co. over a payment system that would allow the company to collect royalties on the pervasive use of its popular soybean seeds, Agriculture Secretary Miguel Campos said Friday.
Campos met with journalists at a press conference to discuss lawsuits recently filed by Monsanto in Denmark over the shipment of Argentine soybean products to the country.
"Monsanto has shown that it continues to be a national embarrassment," Campos said, adding that the lawsuits have already harmed Argentina's farmers and exporters.
"We will fight this, and we'll use the best lawyers we can get to defend ourselves," Campos said.
Tests carried out on the products showed that they were made with Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready seeds, which are used to plant 95 percent of Argentina's soybeans.
Monsanto has a patent on Roundup Ready in Denmark and in most other European Union countries, but it has never been able to patent the seeds in Argentina. This has made it hard for the company to get farmers here to pay for the right to use the seeds.
Monsanto had said it filed the lawsuits "to clarify its intellectual property rights since some parties (in Argentina) have expressed doubt about those rights."
Those rights, and what they imply legally in Argentina, have been the center of heated and often bitter public talks between Monsanto, Argentine officials, farmers and soybean exporters.
At issue is how, and how much, Monsanto should be able collect for the use of its seeds. Monsanto says Argentines properly pay for certified seed only 17 percent of the time, down from 50 percent in 1996, when Roundup Ready was introduced in the local market.
Campos said Friday that around 30 percent of the seeds used are legally certified.
Monsanto said earlier this week that the suits are merely meant to support its claim that it has a legal right to collect royalties on its seeds. Moreover, the company said it wants to keep talking with officials and farmers to reach a consensus solution to the problem.
Monsanto shares fell 49 cents to close at $62.38 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.
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2.Spurious Bt cotton seeds flood markets
Monsanto's business hurt; experts fear cotton production may be affected too
Sanjeev Unhale / Aurangabad
Business Standard, July 02, 2005
http://www.business-standard.com/smartinvestor/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu6&leftindx=6&lselect=10&chklogin=N&autono=193190
The US lifesciences giant Monsanto's monopoly over genetically modified Bt cotton seeds in India is facing a different kind of threat this time.
Already reeling under political oppositions and cheap alternatives from local companies, Monsanto is now being plagued by unabated sale of unlicensed and spurious Bt cotton seeds in the country.
Spurious seeds have flooded the markets of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other cotton growing areas of the country.
So far, the police have seized cotton seeds worth Rs 1.67 crore from Maharashtra alone from various areas in Buldana, Aurangabad, Jalna and Nanded districts.
Last week, the Buldana police confiscated spurious Bt cotton seeds worth Rs 70 lakh and arrested 22 persons including some from Gujarat. The gang had smuggled Bt cottonseeds from Gujarat and was selling them at outlets in Akola, Jalna and Nanded.
However, it is the farmers who have been hurt the most in the entire episode. Already paying through their noses for Monsanto's expensive seeds, now they are threatened by a poor cotton production resulting from these spurious seeds.
Despite being expensive, the demand for Bt cotton seeds has increased this year. Monsanto sells Bt cotton seeds through its sub-licensees in the country.
Monsanto spokesperson Ranjana Smetacek said the licence to produce and sell Bt cotton was given only to Mahyco, Rashi, Nuzibitu, Ankur, Mahabeej and Pro-Agro.
The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) and genetic approval committee permit no other company to sell Bt cotton other than these agencies.
Therefore, there is a constant shortage of Bt cotton seeds as Monsanto concessionaires could meet only 60 per cent of the demand for three million packets. The rest of the demand was being met by spurious seed suppliers.
Additional director agriculture, Aurangabad district, Pralhad Pokale said although one per cent sowing could be completed in Marathwada due to delayed monsoons, more than 75 per cent farmers had bought Bt seeds.
Both Vidarbha and Marathwada are major cotton growing areas of Maharashtra with Buldana, Vashim, Vardha, Amravati, Akola and Yavatmal achieving bumper production last year.
Police officials said seed manufacturers in Gujarat have openly admitted to supplying spurious Bt cottonseeds to Maharashtra and other states. Another Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, based company has also been supplying fake Bt seeds under the brand name of Tulsi.
Preetiranjan Rath, Monsanto business manager for Maharashtra, said many farmers purchased cotton seeds from the ginning mills at lower prices and sold them to the farmers at higher prices.
Dr S B Varade, soil scientist and former director of Water and Land Management Institute, Aurangabad, said the original Bt cotton seeds produce 10 to 12 quintals of cotton per acre while the spurious or the second-generation (F2) seed provides only 4 to 5 quintals of cotton.
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3.As you sow, so shall you weep
India Together, 30 June 2005
http://www.indiatogether.org/2005/jun/psa-sowweep.htm
With the rains finally here, spurious seeds and other fake inputs introduce a deadly new element in the survival struggle of the Vidharbha farmer. Fake seeds from Andhra Pradesh have come in on a large scale. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.
30 June 2005 - There were 14 shops selling seed and other inputs in Mahagaon panchayat samiti of Yavatmal district in Maharashtra just five years ago. "Today," says Sanjay Bhagat, "there are over 50. And that's to cater to just 7,000 people." Bhagat is a Director of the local Agriculture Produce Market Committee. He is also a long-time journalist of the region. "Right now, the pressure on people to buy is awful. You can sell them anything."
The coming of the rains set off a desperate scramble for inputs over the weekend. "In Yavatmal district as a whole," says B.M. Orke, "there are about 1,200 krishi kendras. You might say the total has doubled over a ten-year period." Orke is the district superintending agricultural officer.
To monitor this vast, chaotic network of shops, there is just one full-time quality control inspector. "You can sell seed anywhere," says K.R. Zanzad. "Seed has no boundaries." Quite true. Many brands have sprouted legs and raced across the Andhra Pradesh border. After a crackdown on them in that State, shady sellers have shifted large stocks of fake inputs into Vidharbha.
Uncertain future: Lakhs of farmers face losses even before the season gets under way. The family of Laxman Wankhede who committed suicide in Ijani village of Yavatmal last October. [Picture by P Sainath]
Some of the very brands reported by this newspaper as ripping people off in Andhra Pradesh have found their way here. Our reports (The seeds of suicide: July 20 and 21, 2004) showed packets of seed with the words "Germination Rate - 65 per cent" printed on them. The same packets can be found here with a change. The words 65 per cent have been blacked out. Beside them is a new figure - 75 per cent. The contents may not have changed, but the numbers on the packet have. Some packets give no rate at all.
"We have noticed that," says Zanzad. "We have demanded lab reports and statements to see how this was done. If we find something wrong, we will file cases against them." However, by the time that happens, the purchase of inputs would long be over.
Problem of fake seed
Farmers face problems with both real and fake seed dealers. The bogus ones flood the market. The others charge absurd rates. Some BT varieties come with a 70 per cent royalty tagged on to them. And all prices have shot up in the past decade. Sometimes, the high price of seed pushes farmers towards less costly brands which might be fakes.
"The headache with spurious seed is that you figure it out only a month or two after sowing," says Sanjay Bhagat. The racket has reached worrying proportions. "We have lodged FIRs in some cases," says District Collector Harshdeep Kamble. "We find now that they are not stocking these in the shops." Bhagat confirms that in Mahagaon. "The action is now away from the shop." Though that's where the dealers trawl for clients. Large sellers feed the smaller shops. "The sub-dealers have no idea where the big ones get their stocks from," says Bhagat. The number of brands, names and claims is bewildering. Since both real and fake stuff are on offer, chaos rules. For those deep in debt and wrecked by crop loss, fake inputs are a nightmare. "Nothing is regulated anymore There is no control in the seed market," farmers in Waifad, Wardha told us at a meeting. In an era when input prices have soared, fake items introduce a risk that can be fatal.
Namdeo Patil Bonde in Yavatmal suffered three crop failures before he took his own life last November. "The input costs crushed him," says his brother Pandurang. And don't go by the bills. "As prices go up, the bills go out. The bill for the BT seeds says Rs. 1,800. What he paid was Rs. 2,200." He scoffs at all germination rate claims. "In my experience, most do not exceed 50-60 per cent."
The profusion of shops does not make inputs cheaper. "The government pays less for cotton," says Manoj Chandurvarkar in Waifad. "But, seed prices keep going up. As do those of all other items." In 1991, he points out, "seed for an acre cost me Rs. 70-75. Now it costs Rs. 1,000. If we use BT seeds, that cost is Rs. 3,200 or more."
Farmers also scoff at the government raids. "They're doing that more for Monsanto than for us. Where are the raids on the non-BT fakes?" The four raids in Yavatmal have all been on dealers in illegal BT cotton.
Meanwhile, sellers have made a killing. It makes sense to open an inputs store here. The rule now is that a person with a diploma in agriculture can open one. "Earlier, anybody could," says B.M. Orke. "A law was brought in to ensure only graduates in that field could. But that has been challenged in court." "Earlier," he says, "90 per cent of the farmers used domestic seeds. That had no cost at all. Now the demand for commercial seed has shot up." Yet, it isn't just seed costs that are up. "Pesticides have seen the largest hikes," say the farmers in Waifad. "We once spent as little as Rs.90 an acre. Now it ranges from Rs. 1,000 to Rs.3,000." Fertilizer prices have risen three-fold in the past 10 years. The few who have pumpsets paid a lot more for power. From Rs. 900 a year for a 3-HP set, that rose to Rs. 4,500. Transport and labour costs are up. Loans carry much higher interest rates.
Lakhs of farmers face heavy losses. For those shifting from food to cash crops over the past decade, the new costs are crippling. For Shankar Wankhede it all proved too much last week. He took his own life in Mahagaon tehsil on June 20. Fake seeds today add a deadly new element to the process. In Vidharbha, the old Biblical saying stands re-written. Now, for farmers here, it is: as you sow, so shall you weep. ¨’
P Sainath
30 Jun 2005
(Courtesy: The Hindu)
P Sainath is one of the two recipients of the A.H. Boerma Award, 2001, granted for his contributions in changing the nature of the development debate on food, hunger and rural development in the Indian media.
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