1.Sowing seeds of ignorance - Times of India
2.'Farm policy change needed to check suicides' - Financial Express

Here's a powerful editorial from the Times of India (item 1) saying India's regulators "have been guilty in equal measure of unconscionable laxity and apathy":

"For instance, trial crops must be destroyed but shockingly, farmers are selling under-trial GM brinjal and okra in the open market, and there is precious little the regulators are doing about it. The debate over GM cropping is loaded."

The second article from the Financial Express reports on the fifth and the final report of India's National Commission on Farmers (NCF), under Green Revolution scientist MS Swaminathan, which is proposing that farmer suicides could be assuaged by seed companies providing insurance on GM crops.

A simpler alternative might be just to ban this expensive and faulty technology which, as Devinder Sharma points out, is drawing farmers into a death trap.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7103

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1.Benefit of doubt
Times of India, 7 October 2006
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-2110314,curpg-2.cms

The Supreme Court's directive staying fresh field trials of genetically modified crops is a corrective measure that could not have been more timely. Especially so when the establishment has committed itself to usher in the second green revolution riding on biotechnology.

BT cotton is the only GM crop approved for commercial cultivation in India. A whole host of others, mostly food crops, are being tested brinjal, okra, tomato, mustard, chilli, rice etc and await approval before they reach your dining table. By the rule book, a GM crop must be tested for between two and four years, both in limited and large-scale trials.

Only when proven beyond reasonable doubt that it is profitable, poses no harm to the ecology, and human health, is it given the OK stamp. But so far, our GM experiment has largely come a cropper. The bug that bears the strain of babudom plagues field trials being carried out across the country.

GEAC, under the ministry of environment, grants the final approval for tests and subsequently, the crop to be grown commercially. In tandem with DBT, under the ministry of science and technology, it is also meant to monitor safety standards.

But they have been guilty in equal measure of unconscionable laxity and apathy. Approvals have often been fast-tracked and there are several reports of lapses.

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2.'Farm policy change needed to check suicides'
NFC says prime farmland should not be diverted for non-agricultural purpose
ASHOK B SHARMA
Financial Express, October 6 2006
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=142530

NEW DELHI, OCT 5:  The fifth and the final report of the National Commission on Farmers (NCF) has suggested the need for a policy approach to deal with the situation, which has led farmers to commit suicides.

It said prime farmland should be conserved and not diverted for non-agricultural purpose. It has recommended distribution of land to the landless, and review the formula for estimating compensation to farmers on acquisition of their land.

The agriculture ministry should be restructured and renamed as ministry for agriculture and farmer’s welfare. National Food Security and Sovereignty Board should be constituted under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister.

On purchases of grains by the government designated agencies, the panel said it should done as per the prevailing market price, and not by the minimum support prices (MSPs) fixed by the government. Government purchases should be expanded to include other crops besides wheat and rice.

Purchases should be done in newer areas. Crops in the rain-fed areas like milet and pulses should be marketed.

“The second green revolution belongs to dry land and, hence, pulses and millets are important,” said NCF chairman, MS Swaminathan on Thursday.

“Time has come when policy interventions should address those who are behind the farming activities rather than the farm sector,” he said.

The panel suggested the need for organic farming, green agriculture, transgenic crops, protected agriculture like greenhouse farming and fertigation and insurance for transgenic crops by seed companies. It suggested policy approaches for tribal farmers, pastorals, plantation labour, island and urban farmers.

It suggested diversification of activities by farmers into livestock, poultry and fisheries, and also initiatives for non-farm livelihood. Other proposals are for protecting biodiversity and bioresources, conservation of natural resources and easy institutional credit to farmers at 4% interest rate.

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