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Asia's Nobel Prize goes to journalist who helped expose plight of Bt cotton farmers (4/8/2007)

1.P Sainath wins Ramon Magsaysay award
2.GM Watch's 'Best article of 2006'
3.A fading cotton bumper crop

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1.P Sainath wins Ramon Magsaysay award

The Indian development journalist Palagummi Sainath has been awarded the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award (often considered Asia's Nobel Prize) for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts.

In selecting P Sainath this year's winner, the board of trustees recognized "his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India's consciousness, moving the nation to action."
http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/Citation/CitationSainathPal.htm

Among the many stories about the plight of the rural poor that P Sainath has brought to light is the "devastating" (his word) impact of multinationals like Monsanto on debt-burdened farmers in states like Maharashtra where not just Monsanto but the State Government has worked flat out to promote Bt cotton:

"One of the big headaches in Vidarbha is the state propagandised and favoured the promotion of Bt Cotton. Firstly, Bt Cotton technologies are themselves suspect in a number of ways. However, promoting them in a dry and un-irrigated area like Vidarbha was murderous. It was stupid, it was killing. The Bt Cotton packet was costing Rs 1800 to 1850 for a packet of 450 grams. On each packet of Rs 1850, Monsanto was making a royalty of Rs 1250. Coming back the MNC's, their role in the crisis has been devastating. One, they have been able to corrupt and lobby government policy very significantly changing it in their favour and against the farmers."
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main19.asp?filename=Ne090906The_relief_CS.asp

The following P Sainath article was chosen by GM Watch founder, Jonathan Matthews, as his Best Article of 2006. Here's why.

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2.Best article of 2006
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7430

Here's my best article of 2006. It's one that literally reduced me to tears. It's by Palagummi Sainath - the award winning Indian reporter and photojournalist, widely regarded as Asia's leading development journalist.

Last month Sainath, who Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has described as "one of the world's greatest experts on famine and hunger", turned his attention to the gap between illusion and reality for cotton farmers in Maharashtra - the Indian state where, thanks to a massive campaign of hype, farmers have bought into a bigger GM acreage than anywhere else in the country.

The article was forwarded to me by the farmers' campaign group Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) who have kept a careful toll of farmer suicides in their part of Maharashtra since June 2005. At the time of Sainath's article, the death toll had reached a staggering 1132. According to the VJAS press release, "ALL RECENT COTTON GROWERS SUICIDES [ARE] DUE TO MASS FAILURE OF B.T. COTTON."

Here's the article. It's well worth following the link to the original for Sainath's striking accompanying photograph.

And here's to a brighter 2007 - one where instead of hype and illusion being pushed to struggling farmers, real approaches to poverty alleviation are supported.*

Jonathan Matthews
December 31 2006

*see, for instance:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=7077

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3.A fading cotton bumper crop
P. Sainath
The Hindu, November 25 2006
http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/25/stories/2006112502891100.htm

Claims of a cotton bumper crop in Maharashtra have faded. Farmers feel such talk was meant to push prices down further. Procurement delays could also force many to sell in distress to private buyers.

[- Photo: P. Sainath

image caption: Laxmibai Bodewar sits on her bed of unsold cotton. The yield from her 35 acres has been poor, cotton prices have tanked, and procurement is yet to begin in any serious way. She is amazed by talk of a 'bumper crop.']

"BUMPER CROP? Where are you living?" Mohan Maratrao Patil wants to know. "My family has 45 acres here in Yavatmal - and all we've managed is 80 quintals of cotton so far. At best, we'll get another 80. We've lost lakhs of rupees." That his lands are irrigated has not helped. "Find me the farmer who has had that great harvest." Mr. Patil, a Bt cotton grower in Vanjiri, scoffs at the notion of a bumper crop.

The idea was aired by the Government of Maharashtra itself. The State's Minister of Marketing, Harshvardhan Patil, told the press more than once that he expected a huge rise in cotton production this year. Some reports had him predict a 'bumper crop' of 350 lakh quintals. Others had him peg it at a more modest 300 quintals. Either way, this would mean a huge increase of 30-40 per cent over the official estimate for last year.

On the ground, in any of the six 'crisis' districts of Vidharbha, this 'bumper crop' is hard to spot. Farmers report huge losses. Official reports tend to confirm their claims. "The State would be lucky to see a yield of 160 lakh quintals this year," says Vijay Jawandia in Wardha. A leading farm activist of this region, Mr. Jawandia believes "the only purpose this kind of bumper crop propaganda serves is to depress already low prices."

"It's the oldest story," says Mr. Patil. "When the crop is in the farmers' hands, all sorts of things are said and done to depress the price. Once it is with the traders, you will see the price improve." The implications are grave for most of the region's 1.7 million farm families. Close to half a million of them - more than two million people - have been recorded by a government survey as facing "maximum distress."

The Minister appears to have based

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