The National Food Security Act

The Food Security is a situation that respects protects

and fulfills the” Right to Food”. The Concept of Right to Food is the embodiment of
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary
economical cultural and nutritional values. The National Advisory Council (NAC)
constituted on the behest of the UPA chairperson, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is trying to reach at
least the bottom of these values while implementing the proposed National Food Security Act.
In this ground set, the NAC decided in its recent meeting to redraft the present Bill. As such the
Bill is not going to be presented in the current session of the Parliament. the politics of food
knows no such values. For the people, “Food” is a human right to be achieved to protect their
right to live guaranteed in the Article 21 of the Constitution. For politicians, “Food” is a political
tool to make use of the peoples' right to vote as a democratic exercise. As such the political will of
our body politics is lacking the potentials of enacting a “Law on Food Security”.

An in depth reading of the National Food Security Bill in its present form and the decisions of the
recent NAC meeting is indicating that the universal acceptance of a food security law including all
Blocs either geographical or social seems a distant feature. As of now, the people have to content with
the present food entitlement programmes in poverty reduction. The mandate of the proposed Act to
establish of Food security Fund at the Union Level and State Levels to compensate in case of failure to
food provision is itself a nullifying the justifiability of the right to food. With this compensatory
provision, failure to provide guaranteed food, will allow the victims to receive the dole and not the
required food as a fundamental and basic right. The quantitative restriction of 25 kg or 35 Kg per family
per month food supply without guaranteeing the quality of the contents is another flaw. The Exclusion of
Universal Public Distribution System (UPDS) and the inclusion of Targeted Public Distribution System
(TPDS) is another anomaly. The NAC tries to understand the reality of universalisation; but unable to match
it with the economic logic.

The NAC with its political, social and action oriented blend of leadership will find it hard to fulfill the process
of making Law to provide food security to our millions living under hunger and malnourishment unless and
otherwise effective implementation of agrarian reform measures with economic pragmatism by involving
small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural workers with a package of easy access to food producing
resources. In this constructive and inclusive development agenda of proving food security to the suffering
mass; no provision should be inducted to provide a political tool to the party politicians in the name of framing
a “Law For Food Security” . The ruling government of the Union of India is ruled over by the Maoists. The
state governments where the Maoist activities at large are neither willing to check the insurgency nor able
counter the ultimate political challenge posed by such forces. On the other hand the power holding politicians'
are busy in employing intermediary business tactics to lease out the forests, minerals and other common
property resources of natural origins and safeguarded by our generations to Multi National Corporations and
Corporate business houses. The Supreme Court of India rules that the fundamental right life of the people is
a means to achieve the right to food as enshrined in the directive principles of state policy.

In this endeavor, the Ruling Governments by adopting the “Doctrine of Trusteeship over natural resources”.
The NAC may consider in its domain to expand the opportunity of making the Right to Food Law for the
country and the people who are hunger, malnourished and literally innocent even to understand the root
causes of the abject poverty stricken to them. Ability to enact a Food Security Act recognizing the
international human right obligations of Right to Food Law by the Government of India as a state party to
the United Nations System is nothing but the Political will of the leaders who are leading the UPA
Coalition Government. The coalition partners of the present UPA government could demonstrate their
might in guaranteeing the poor, marginalized and neglected communities with the right to food and
prove that the governance of the country is for the people, by the people and of the people as the
founding fathers of the Constitution acclaimed.

Krishan Bir Chaudhary

 Vol. 1 No. 8 August, 2010

KISAN KI AWAAZ
National Magazine of Farmers’ Voice
Editor :

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary,

President, CONTENTS
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's, massage 2
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar,
Delhi-110091 Law Minister's massage 3
Advisory Board :
Climate Change and Indian Agriculture 4
S. P. Gulati, Sect. G.O.I., Retd. * Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary
Lingraj B. Patil
Dr. Mangesh Deshmukh G.E. Soybeans May Cause Allergies 10
Dr. R.B. Thakare * Jeffrey Smith
D. Guruswamy, Adv.
Rajesh Sharma “Bittoo” Shining India or Starving India? 11
Pratap Singh, DIG Retd. * Dr. Vandana Shiva
Hatam Singh Nagar, Adv.
K. Sareen Pau Contingent Plan for Crops 14
Ajay Singh * Dr. Charanjit Singh Gumtala

Desiged by : Rahul Sharma A Brief Report of Convention 16

Aastha Chaudhary
Printed & Published by :
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary on behalf of
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj.
Printed at Everest Press, E-49/8, Okhla
Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-20.
*Bharatiya Krishak Samaj
foKku dh utj esas [kslkjh nky & ,d bZ'ojh; nsu 19
* MkW- 'kkfUryky dksBkjh
Round Table On FTAs With EU &.. 21
Back to traditional varieties 25

Published at : GM Blight-resistant Potatoes Who Needs Them? 27

F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110091 The dark side of nitrogen; 29

Mob.:9810331366, Telefax:011-22751281, * David Gutierrez
kbc@kisankiawaaz.org
E-mail:bharatiyakrishaksamaj@gmail.com The government war on raw milk 30
Website:- www.kisankiawaaz.org * Mike Adams

Widespread male infertility sweeping the globe 32

The views expressed by the
authors are their own. The
editor does not accept
responsibility for returning
unsolicited publication material.
Disputes arising if any will be
under Jurisdiction of Delhi
Court
Single copy Rs. 25/-, Annual Rs. 300/-
* Ethan A. Huff
New Subscription
Annual subscription charge of Rs 300/- for our monthly journal
'KISAN KI AWAAZ' may please be sent by cheque/Draft, drawn in
favour of BHARATIYA KRISHAK SAMAJ,
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Suggestions for improvement are invited

August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 1

2 Kisan Ki Awaaz August - 2010
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 3
 Climate Change and Indian Agriculture
* Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary, President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj
1. INTRODUCTION
Climate change is a reality and the main cause of the
present situation is on account of the anthropogenic
activities disturbing the composition of the
atmosphere resulting in higher concentration of
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which accumulates along with
other green house gases (GHG) like methane and
nitrous oxide and contribute to increase in surface
temperature of the earth. The main contributors have
been the developed countries like US and EU but now
other developing countries like China are slowly
replacing as the main polluters. However, the per
capita emission reveals that the main emitters are the
developed countries. If the pace of this emission
moves then it is expected the CO2 concentration
which is currently less than 400 parts per million
might shoot above 800 if high emission continues by
the end of this century.
Table 1 Global CO2 emission and the country
share
Source: World Development Indicators 2010.
The consequences of these emissions are already
visible with disturbance in climate which in turn is
touching everyone's life. Climate is an important
factor of agricultural productivity. Climate change is
4 Kisan Ki Awaaz
likely to impact agriculture and food security across
the globe. A large fraction of the world's food
including India is grown as rainfed annual crops
(India's irrigated share is 44%), and climate variability
plays an important role in determining productivity.
India faces a severe situation in the context that the
population is increasing faster than the food grain
yield and this could make the food and other
agricultural product supply erratic and unpredictable.
Another serious challenge confronting the agriculture
is the competition for water resources increases, and
the frequency of extreme temperatures changes.
Globally, all societies will be vulnerable to changes in
food production, quality and supply under climate
change along with their consequent socio-economic
pressures. Climate change is also expected to affect
agricultural and livestock production, hydrologic
balances, input supplies and other components of
agricultural systems. Climate change is caused by the
release of green house gases in the atmosphere. These
green house gases accumulate in the atmosphere
which results in global warming. The greenhouse
gases, on one hand, allow the transmission of light
reaching the earth, and on the other hand block the
transmission of heat (infra-red radiation) trying to
escape from the atmosphere, thus trapping the heat as
in a 'greenhouse'. The major changes observed as a
August - 2010
result of global warming are changes in global climate
change related parameters such as temperature,
precipitation, soil moisture and sea level.
Global warming is the observed increase in the
average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and
oceans in recent decades and its projected
continuation into the future. The decade of 2001-2009
was the warmest decade recorded on earth. Global
average near-surface atmospheric temperature rose
0.6 ± 0.2° Celsius (1.1 ± 0.4°Fahrenheit) in the 20th
century. Most scientists are of the opinion that most of
the warming observed over the last 50 years is
attributable to human activities. The main cause of the
human-induced component of warming is the
increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse
gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), which
leads to warming of the surface and lower atmosphere
by increasing the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse
gases are released by activities such as the burning of
fossil fuels, land clearing, and agriculture. The
contribution of different sectors to the global warming
or CO2 emission are illustrated in Fig 1.
Fig 1 Contribution in CO2 Emission sectorwise
Source World Development Report 2010
An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause
other changes, including a rising sea level and
changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation.
These changes may increase the frequency and
intensity of extreme weather events, such as floods,
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
droughts, heat waves, hurricanes, and tornados. Other
consequences include higher or lower agricultural
yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer stream flows,
species extinctions and increases in the ranges of
disease vectors. Warming is expected to affect the
number and magnitude of these events.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) are the
main greenhouse gases (GHG) contributing to global
warming. Over the last century the earth has warmed
approximately 1 degree Fahrenheit. The
concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has
risen from 290ppm (parts per million) in 1900 to
nearly 400ppm. Industry, Electric Power Generation,
Agriculture and Transportation are the four top
sources of greenhouse gases.
It is being anticipated that the rising levels of
greenhouse gases are likely to increase the global
average surface temperature by 1.5-4.5oC over the
next 100 years, raise sea-levels (thus inundating
farmland and making coastal groundwater saltier),
amplify extreme weather events such as storms and
hot spells, shift climate zones towards poles, and
reduce soil moisture.
2. AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Indian economy from times immemorial has been
dependent on Monsoon which brings relief not just to
the food security but to the whole economy. Rising
temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns have
direct effects on crop yields, as well as indirect effects
through changes in irrigation water availability.
Recent studies including IFPRI have shown that the
rain fed yield changes are driven by both precipitation
and temperature changes; the irrigated yield effects
are from temperature changes alone. The results of the
research suggest that in developing countries, yield
declines predominate for most crops. Irrigated wheat
and irrigated rice are especially hard hit. On an
average, yields in developed countries are affected
less than those in developing countries. For a few
crops, climate change actually increases yields in the
developed-country. In the East Asia and Pacific
region, some crops fare reasonably well because
higher future temperatures are favourable in locations
where current temperatures are at the low end of the
crop's optimal temperature. South Asia is particularly
hard hit by climate change. For almost all crops, it is
5
the region with the greatest yield decline. Rainfed
maize and irrigated and rainfed wheat still see
substantial areas of reduced yields. Sub-Saharan
Africa sees mixed results, with small declines or
increases in maize yields and large negative effects on
rainfed wheat. The Latin America and Caribbean
region also has mixed yield effects, with some crops
up slightly and some down.
A. AGRICULT URE AND CO2 LEVEL
INCREASE
Some of the impacts of climate change on
atmospheric composition include CO2 enrichment,
increased levels of surface ozone and rising mean
temperatures. Plants, through the process of
photosynthesis, utilize the energy of sunlight to
convert water from the soil and carbon dioxide from
the air into sugar, starches, and cellulose. CO2 enters a
plant through its leaves. Greater atmospheric
concentrations tend to increase the difference in
partial pressure between the air outside and inside the
plant leaves, and as a result more CO2 is absorbed and
converted to carbohydrates. Crop species vary in their
response to CO2. Wheat, rice, and soybeans belong to
a physiological class (called C3 plants) that responds
readily to increased CO2 levels. Corn, sorghum,
sugarcane, and millet are C4 plants that follow a
different pathway. Higher levels of atmospheric CO2
also induce plants to close the small leaf openings
known as stomata through which CO2 is absorbed and
water vapour is released. Thus, under CO2
enrichment crops may use less water even while they
produce more carbohydrates. This dual effect will
likely improve water-use efficiency, which is the ratio
between crop biomass and the amount of water
consumed. The positive impacts of CO2 enrichment
would, to some extent, compensate for the negative
impacts of rising mean temperatures (which shorten
the growing season of most annual crops, and so
reduce yields of current varieties). The possible
decline in air quality with increased levels of surface
ozone could have serious detrimental effects on crop
growth. This positive impact is indicative that
agriculture will in many ways help in preserving and
combating climate change by adapting to the current
stress and help in conserving water. However, the
impact is possible in the context of natural farming
wherein less Carbon intensive agriculture is used.
There is greater need to pursue a natural farming with
6 Kisan Ki Awaaz
more in situ (or in farm input resources which would
reduce the cost of cultivation as well as help in
mitigation).
B. HIGH TEMPERATURE IMPACT ON CROPS
In middle and higher latitudes, global warming will
extend the length of the potential growing season,
allowing earlier planting of crops in the spring, earlier
maturation and harvesting, and the possibility of
completing two or more cropping cycles during the
same season. Many crops have become adapted to the
growing-season day lengths of the middle and lower
latitudes and may not respond well to the much longer
days of the high latitude summers. In warmer, lower
latitude regions, increased temperatures may
accelerate the rate at which plants release CO2 in the
process of respiration, resulting in less than optimal
conditions for net growth. When temperatures exceed
the optimal for biological processes, crops often
respond negatively with a steep drop in net growth and
yield. If night time temperature minimum rise more
than daytime maximum, as is expected from
greenhouse warming projections, heat stress during
the day may be less severe than otherwise, but
increased night time respiration may also reduce
potential yields. Another important effect of high
temperature is accelerated physiological
development, resulting in hastened maturation and
reduced yield.
C. AGRICULTURE AND MOISTURE STRESS
Climate change has a direct impact on water
availability for irrigated crops. Internal renewable
water (IRW) is the water available from precipitation.
Though most of the global regions experience
increased IRW, the Middle East and North Africa and
Sub-Saharan Africa regions both experience
reductions of IRW. In addition to precipitation
changes, climate change-induced higher temperatures
increase the water requirements of crops. The ratio of
water consumption to requirements is called irrigation
water supply reliability (IWSR). The smaller the ratio,
the greater the water stress on irrigated crop yields.
IWSR improves slightly for the Latin America and
Caribbean region and for the Middle East and North
Africa, but worsens slightly for Sub-Saharan Africa.
The availability of water for agriculture will be a key
issue for crop production in the coming decades.
August - 2010
There is a focus worldwide on how to improve the
efficiency of water use for crop production. Higher
CO2 levels improve the water usage efficiency of
most crops. Plant transpiration is reduced under
higher CO2 levels and the crop looses less water.
Reduced transpiration over a sufficiently large region
could lead to reduced precipitation there as well.
These changes in transpiration can alter the
hydrological balance over land and affect the local
climate. This highlights the inherent links between
crops, climate and the water cycle. Climate change
will modify rainfall, evaporation, runoff, and soil
moisture storage. Changes in total seasonal
precipitation or in its pattern of variability are both
important. The occurrence of moisture stress during
flowering, pollination, and grain-filling is harmful to
most crops and particularly so to corn, soybeans, and
wheat. Increased evaporation from the soil and
accelerated transpiration in the plants themselves will
cause moisture stress; as a result there will be a need to
develop crop varieties with greater drought tolerance.
The demand for water for irrigation is projected to rise
in a warmer climate, bringing increased competition
between agriculture, urban as well as industrial users.
Falling water tables and the resulting increase in the
energy needed to pump water will make the practice
of irrigation more expensive, particularly when with
drier conditions more water will be required per acre.
Peak irrigation demands are also predicted to rise due
to more severe heat waves. Additional investment for
dams, reservoirs, canals, wells, pumps, and piping
may be needed to develop irrigation networks in new
locations. Finally, intensified evaporation will
increase the hazard of salt accumulation in the soil.
D. EXTREME C L I M AT E A N D
AGRICULTURE
Important climate thresholds for food crops include
episodes of high temperatures that coincide with
critical phases of the crop cycle. These high-
temperature episodes can lead to dramatic reductions
in yield, in some cases in excess of 50%; for example,
temperatures greater than 30°C lasting for more than 8
hours lead to reduced grain-set in wheat. Climate
change scenarios suggest that critical temperature
thresholds for food crops will be exceeded with
increasing frequency in the future. For some crops,
these critical temperatures, particularly at flowering
and fruit or grain bearing, are reasonably well known
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
(e.g. temperatures greater than 35 °C for more than 1
hour leads to pollen sterility in rice).
E. CLIMATE CHANGE AND QUALITY
DEPRECIATION
Food systems can be vulnerable to climate change.
Grain quality of wheat (e.g. protein content) is highly
susceptible to current variations in climate and affects
the type of foods that can be produced through, for
example, gluten levels and related dough strength will
affect crop storage and thereby increase the cost of
transportation and storage. Other impact on crop
quality include, pests and diseases, such as dangerous
levels of mycotoxin contamination of groundnuts.
Vegetable and fruits dehydrate and get contaminated
besides losing texture and human find it difficult to
consume.
F. CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOIL FERTILITY
Higher air temperatures will also affect the soil, where
warmer conditions are likely to speed the natural
decomposition of organic matter and to increase the
rates of other soil processes that affect fertility. With
dryer condition lesser water the decomposition will
make available NPK for the plants to grow. This
would also enhance the depletion of micronutrients
and it availability and reduce the quality of produce
from the land. Additional application of fertilizer may
be needed to counteract these processes and to take
advantage of the potential for enhanced crop growth
that can result from increased atmospheric CO2.
However, of adequate irrigation not provided the
application of fertilizer will serve no purpose. Further
excess application of fertiliser to overcome stress
would pose a severe cost to environment impact water
and air quality besides contamination of food chain.
The continual cycling of plant nutrients (carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and sulphur) in the
soil-plant-atmosphere system is also likely to
accelerate in warmer conditions, enhancing CO2 and
N2O greenhouse gas emissions.
G. CLIMATE CHANGE AND PEST AND
DISEASES
Severe stress in climate with erratic rainfalls helps
proliferation of insect pests in warmer climates.
Longer growing seasons will enable insects such as
7
grasshoppers to complete a greater number of
reproductive cycles during the spring, summer, and
autumn. Warmer winter temperatures may also allow
larvae to winter-over in areas where they are now
limited by cold, thus causing greater infestation
during the following crop season. Altered wind
patterns may change the spread of both wind-borne
pests and of the bacteria and fungi that are the agents
of crop disease. Crop-pest interactions may shift as
the timing of development stages in both hosts and
pests is altered. Livestock diseases may be similarly
affected. The possible increases in pest infestations
may bring about greater use of chemical pesticides to
control them, a situation that will require further
development and application of integrated pest
management techniques.
H. CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE
IN LOW LYING AREAS
Global warming is predicted to lead to thermal
expansion of sea water, along with partial melting of
land-based glaciers and sea-ice, resulting in a rise of
sea level which may range from 0.1 to 0.5 meters (4 to
20 inches) by the middle of the next century,
according to present estimates of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Such a rise could pose a threat to agriculture in low-
lying coastal areas, where impeded drainage of
surface water and of groundwater, as well as intrusion
of sea water into estuaries and aquifers, might take
place. In parts of Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
China, the Netherlands, Florida, and other low-lying
coastal areas already suffering from poor drainage,
agriculture is likely to become increasingly difficult
to sustain besides degradation of soil on account of
salt intrusion. Island states are particularly at risk
wiping off inhabitation and causing large scale
immigration and other social problems.
I. CLIMATE CHANGE AND MONSOON
IMPACT
ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) is the most
important factor contributing to water recharge in
rainfed regions of India climate change warming in
the ocean disturbs the pressure zones thereby
disturbing the monsoon. Rice cultivation would be
worst affected with a disturbed monsoon and
unpredictable weather. Scheduled planting and
8 Kisan Ki Awaaz
harvesting based on weather patterns will become less
effective. Even regions adjoining India like Indonesia
where the main crop consists of rice will be more
vulnerable to the increased intensity of ENSO effects
in the future of climate change. Normal planting of
rice crops begin in October and harvested by January.
However, as climate change affects ENSO and
consequently delays planting, harvesting will be late
and in drier conditions, resulting in less potential
yields.
3 . C L I M AT E C H A N G E A N D I N D I A N
AGRICULTURE
Agriculture and allied sector still constitutes the single
largest component of around 17% of the Gross
Domestic Product and providing an employment of
around two thirds of the total work force. Its
contribution to exports is close to 11 percentage and
its intricate linkage with food prices makes it critical
to providing not just the food needs of the country but
also its neighboring South Asia region. At the country
level the agriculture contributes 28 percentages of
total GHG emissions. This share in agriculture does
not include the fuel used in agriculture for energy use.
The main GHG emission in agriculture comes from
enteric fermentation which forms close to 60
percentages followed by methane emission from rice
cultivation close to 23 percentages.
Fig 2 Sector wise GHG emission in Agriculture in
India
August - 2010
Fig 3 Desegregation of the GHG Agricultural
Emission in India
Source: India's Initial National Communication on
Climate Change, 2004
The impact of climate change on India agriculture has
received very less attention in terms of policy mainly
on account of differences emerging in the
quantification of the effect arising from the change in
temperature and build up of CO2 concentration. Even
the methane emission from rice has received sharp
criticism wherein western media reports of high
methane emission have been proved erroneous
(Box1). Notwithstanding this difference there is no
denying that temperature has changed significantly in
the country. Recent reports from different studies
show that the surface temperature across the country
is increasing. The global increase over the period of
100 years was close to 0.85oC and for India it was
close to 0.54oC.
Box 1 Source : ICAR
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
This increase in temperature is cause of alarm with the level
of industrialization and growth model that is being
pursued. The increase in temperature is a result of the
buildup of the GHG emission accumulating in the region.
This is and will result in more frequent hot days, hot nights
and heat waves. This will also result in erratic precipitation
and rise in sea level and low lying agriculture will be
seriously affected. Even the tropical cyclones in the Bay of
Bengal is set to increase and the glaciers in the Himalayas
are going to contract flooding the perennial rivers like
Ganga, Yamuna and Brahmaputra's.
More specifically the clear impact of climate change is the
increase in vulnerability of the crops, livestock, plantation
crops, fisheries, soil fertility and water balance. This in turn
will make the ecology unstable. Agriculture cultivation is a
natural carbon sink wherein plants absorb CO2 and
naturally sequester the Carbon from the atmosphere
contributing to natural mitigation. An increase in CO2 to a
level of 550 parts per million (ppm) increase the yields of
rice, wheat, legumes and oilseeds by 10-20 percentage.
However an increase of 1o C in temperature reduce yields
of wheat, soybean, mustard, groundnut and potato by 3-
7%. Reports indicate that the productivity of most crops
decrease marginally by 2020 but by 10-40% by 2100. The
variation in temperature will also affect yields of apples
(including ripening), coconuts and all fruits and
vegetables.
On account of increase in temperature water balance is
going to get disturbed. Already the level of water
exploitation is very bad and with increase in surface
temperature and without adaptation it is anticipated the
water bodies like the lakes, ponds are going to disappear on
account of the heat. Already on account of unscrupulous
exploitation fertile lands with rich biomass is being
converted to industrial and residential and commercial
purpose which is depleting the natural carbon sinks
contributing to further build up of Green House Gases
(GHG). Industrialized agriculture in developed countries
contribute more intensively to the buildup of CO2 than the
subsistence and traditional agriculture practiced in
developing countries. Similarly on meeting the growing
demand commercial cultivation in Indian farm using
synthetic fertilizer and chemicals is further adding to the
GHG emission and degrading the fertility and productivity
of Indian agriculture.
The new farming policies using Genetically Modified
(GM) seeds is posing a serious threat since these crops use
more water and synthetic fertilizers and chemicals which
add to the carbon foot-prints and further aggravate climate
change. These crops also reduce the biomass and
biodiversity of the region and pose a threat and extinction
of traditional crops and varieties.
9
 Genetically Engineered Soybeans May Cause Allergies
* Jeffrey Smith
"I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered,
it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it unless it says organic."
-Allergy specialist John Boyles, MD

Beginning in 1996, genes from bacteria and viruses
have been forced into the DNA of soy, corn, cotton,
and canola plants, which are used for food. Ohio
allergist John Boyles is one of a growing number of
experts who believe that these genetically modified
(GM) foods are contributing to the huge jump in food
allergies in the US, especially among children.
The UK is one of the few countries that conduct a
yearly food allergy evaluation. In March 1999,
researchers at the York Laboratory were alarmed to
discover that reactions to soy had skyrocketed by
50% over the previous year.
Genetically modified soy had recently entered the
UK from US imports and the soy used in the study
was largely GM. John Graham, spokesman for the
York laboratory, said, “We believe this raises serious
new questions about the safety of GM foods."
Genetic engineering may provoke allergies
There are many ways in which the process of genetic
engineering may be responsible for allergies. The
classical understanding is that the imported genes
produce a new protein, which may trigger reactions.
This was demonstrated in the mid 1990s when
soybeans were outfitted with a gene from the Brazil
nut. While scientists attempted to produce a healthier
soybean, they ended up with a potentially deadly one.
Blood tests showed that people allergic to Brazil nuts
reacted to the beans. It was never marketed.
The GM variety planted in 91% of US soy acres is
called Roundup Readyengineered to survive
otherwise deadly applications of Monsanto's
Roundup herbicide. The plants contain genes from
bacteria, which produce a protein that has never been
part of the human food supply. Since people aren't
usually allergic to a food until they have eaten it
several times, no tests can prove in advance that the
protein will not cause allergies.
As a precaution, scientists compare this new protein
with a database of proteins known to cause allergies.
According to criteria recommended by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and others, if the new
GM protein contains amino acid sequences that have
been shown to trigger immune responses in other
proteins, the GM crop should not be commercialized
(or additional testing should be done). Sections of the
protein produced in GM soy, however, are identical to
shrimp and dust mite allergens. But the soybean got
marketed anyway. Frighteningly, the only published
human feeding study on GM foods ever conducted
verified that the gene inserted into GM soy transfers
into the DNA of our gut bacteria and continues to
function. This means that years after we stop eating
GM soy, we may still have the potentially allergenic
protein continuously produced within our intestines.
Damaged soy DNA creates new (or more) allergens
The process of creating a GM crop produces massive
collateral damage in the plant's DNA. Native genes
can be mutated, deleted, permanently turned on or off,
and hundreds may change their levels of protein
expression. This can increase existing allergen, or
produce a new, unknown allergens. Both appear to
have happened in GM soy.
Levels of one known soy allergen, trypsin inhibitor,
were up to seven times higher in cooked GM soy
compared to cooked non-GM soy. Another study
discovered a unique, unexpected protein in GM soy,
likely to trigger allergies.
In addition, of eight human subjects who had a skin-
Contd.on page-13........

10 Kisan Ki Awaaz August - 2010

 Shining India or Starving India?
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
India became independent soon after the Great
Bengal Famine which took two million lives. And an
independent and free India reclaimed her food
sovereignty, and food security.
The Harijan, a newspaper published by Mahatma
Gandhi, which had been banned from 1942 to 1946,
was full of articles written by Gandhi during 1946-
1947 on how to deal with food scarcity politically, and
by Mira Behn, Kumarappa and Pyarelal on how to
grow more food using internal resources. On 10 June
1947, referring to the food problem at a prayer
meeting Gandhi said:
'The first lesson we must learn is of self-help and self-
reliance. If we assimilate this lesson, we shall at once
free ourselves from disastrous dependence upon
foreign countries and ultimate bankruptcy. This is not
said in arrogance but as a matter of fact.
We are not a small place, dependent for this food
supply upon outside help. We are a sub-continent, a
nation of nearly 400 millions. We are a country of
mighty rivers and a rich variety of agricultural land,
with inexhaustible cattle-wealth.
That our cattle give much less milk than we need is
entirely our own fault. Our cattle-wealth is any day
capable of giving us all the milk we need.
Our country, if it had not been neglected during the
past few centuries, should not today only be providing
herself with sufficient food, but also be playing a
useful role in supplying the outside world with much-
needed foodstuffs of which the late war has
unfortunately left practically the whole world in want.
This does not exclude India'.
Recognising that the crisis in agriculture was related
to a breakdown of nature's processes, India's first
agriculture minister, K M Munshi, had worked out a
detailed strategy on rebuilding and regenerating the
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
ecological base of productivity in agriculture based on
a bottom-up decentralized and participatory
methodology.
In a seminar on 27 September 1951, organized by the
Agriculture Ministry, a program of regeneration of
Indian Agriculture was worked out, with the
recognition that the diversity of India's soils, crops and
climates, had to be taken into account.
The need to plan from the bottom, to consider every
individual village and sometimes every individual
field was considered essential for the programme
called 'land transformation'. At this seminar, K M
Munshi told the State Directors of Agricultural
extension:
'Study the Life's Cycle in the village under your charge
in both its aspects hydrological and nutritional. Find
out where the cycle has been disturbed and estimate
the steps necessary for restoring it. Work out the
village in four of its aspects, (1) existing conditions,
(2) steps necessary for completing the hydrological
cycle,
(3) steps necessary to complete the nutritional cycle,
and a complete picture of the village when the cycle is
restored, and
(4) have faith in yourself and the programme.
Nothing is too mean and nothing too difficult for the
man who believes that the restoration of the life's
cycle is not only essential for freedom and happiness
of India but is essential for her very existence'.
Repairing nature's cycles and working in partnership
with nature's processes was viewed as central to the
indigenous agricultural policy.
Ecological repair of the water and nutrient cycle
combined with land reform, investments in
agriculture, fair prices for farmers and consumers
through Universal Public Distribution System were
11
holistic instruments for food security.
The food system is broken once again. Per Capita
consumption has dropped from 177 cal/day/capita to
150 cal/day/capita. And it has been broken
deliberately through the Structural Adjustment
Polices of the World Bank, the trade liberalizations
rules of the WTO.
It is being continuously broken by the obsession of the
Government to turn seed, food and land into
marketable commodities so that corporate profits
grow, even though farmers commit suicide and
children starve. 200,000 farmers have committed
suicide in India since 1997.
Farmers suicides are triggered by debt, and the debt
trap is created by a corporate driven agriculture which
maximizes corporate profits by pushing non-
renewable seeds and agri-chemicals on impoverished
and innocent farmers.
Every fourth India is hungry today according to U.N.
data. India has beaten Sub-Saharan Africa as the
capital of hunger. One million children die every year
as a result of under-nutrition and hunger.
61 million children are stunted, 25 million are wasted.
42% of the underweight children of the world are now
in India. If a community is hungry, families are
hungry, if a family is hungry, children are hungry.
If the entire food chain is broken, then the food chain
must be fixed. Tinkling with fragments of the broken
chain will not fix it. The food chain begins with the
natural capital of soil, water and seed. The second link
is the work of hardworking small, marginal farmers
and landless peasants, most of whom are women. The
final link is eating.
The first link has been broken by ecological
degradation and corporate hijack of seed, land and
water. Soil erosion, biodiversity erosion, water
depletion, undernourished food production
contribute to food insecurity. When peasants loose
access to land, seed and water, they loose access to
food. Increase in hunger is a direct consequence.
The second link that has been broken is the capacity
12 Kisan Ki Awaaz
of the farmer, the food producer to produce food.
Rising costs of production and falling farm prices
create debt and debt creates food insecurity.
The deliberate destruction of food procurement by
dismantling the PDS system, by using godowns to
store liquor instead of food, by not guaranteeing a fair
price to farmers are signals to the farmers of India that
the Government wants a food system without small
farmers.
Since farmers are the back bone of India's food
security and food sovereignty, breaking the farmers
back is breaking the nations food security. There can
be no food security in a deepening agrarian crisis.
The third link in the food chain is people's entitlement
and right to food. The combination of rising food
prices, decreasing production of pulses and nutritious
millets has reduced the access of the poor to adequate
food and nutrition. Hunger and malnutrition is the
inevitable consequence.
And while millions of our fellow citizens starve, the
Government fiddles with figures. Instead of
addressing the food crisis, the Government is
addressing a fragment of the consequences of the
crisis. Poverty is a consequence, not a cuase.
Fiddling with poverty figures 37 percent in the
Tendulkar Committee Report, 50 percent in the
Saxena Report, 77 percent in the Unorganised Sector
Report is a deliberate attempt to avoid addressing the
root causes of hunger and poverty.
In the context of the food and nutrition crisis, the
proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA) is a
mere fig leaf. It is inadequate because it ignores the
first two links in the food chain, and reduces the scope
of existing schemes for the poor and vulnerable.
For example the NFSA offers only 25 kgs of grain,
instead of the 35 kgs per family per month fixed by the
Supreme Court.
The India Council of Medical Research fixes the
caloric norms at 2400 Kcal in rural areas and 2100
Kcal in urban areas. The Tendulkar Committee which
August - 2010
is now the Planning Commissions official basis fixes
average calorie consumption at 1776 Kcal in urban
areas and 1999 Kcal for rural areas. Through juggling
figures the hungry become well fed, the poor become
non-poor.
Food security demands a universal PDS system which
serves both the poor farmers and the poor eaters by
ensuring fair prices throughout the food chain. Instead
the Government is committed to ever narrowing
“targeting” because it is committed to handing over
agriculture to global agribusiness, and handling over
so called food security schemes to companies like
Sodexo who will collect our tax money to distribute
food coupons to the poor who will use the food
coupons to increase the profits of Cargill, Unilever,
Nestle.
The Governments prescriptions will further break the
food chain, deepening food insecurity.As small
farmers are displaced by agribusinesses, the
destruction of natural capital will increase further
weakening the first link in the food chain. The
agrarian crisis facing two thirds of rural India will
deepen. And breaking the link between farmers and
eaters, between production and consumption through
food stamps and food vouchers will completely break
the food chain.
Contd. from page- 10 ...........
prick (allergy-type) reaction to GM soy, one did not
also react to non-GM soy, suggesting that GM soy is
uniquely dangerous.
Increased herbicides, digestive problems and
allergies
Farmers use nearly double the amount of herbicide on
GM soy compared to non-GM soy; higher herbicide
residues might cause reactions. GM soy reduces
digestive enzymes in mice. If proteins “digest”
slowly in humans, there is more time for allergic
reactions (possibly to many food proteins).
Eating GM foods is gambling with our health
Documents made public from a lawsuit revealed that
FDA scientists were uniformly concerned that GM
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
For a country as large, as poor, as hungry as India,
food sovereignty and self reliance in food production
is not a luxury, it is a food security imperative. The
proposed solution is in the name of reducing of food
subsidy. When PDS was replaced by TPDS under
World Bank pressure, this was the argument used.
However, the food subsidy bill increased from Rs.
2500 crore to Rs. 50,000 crore to starve our people.
The further narrowing of the “target” will further
increase the food subsidy because it will lead to an
increase in the gap between high cost production and
the subsidized food as well as a growing gap between
rising market prices for food and the subsidized food.
And these increasing gaps will also lead to increased
corruption. After Enron, after Goldman Sachs, after
IPL we can no longer say the private sector will clean
things up.
We can no longer think that corruption is exclusive to
Government and handing over the task of feeding the
poor to greedy, profit oriented corrupt corporations
will provide a miracle solution to hunger. Because the
National Food Security Act aims to turn into Law, the
very policies which have created the hunger crisis,
into Law, it is in fact a National Food Insecurity Act.
foods might create hard-to-detect allergies, toxins,
new diseases, and nutritional problems. Their urgent
requests for required long-term feeding studies fell on
deaf ears. The FDA doesn't require a single safety test.
The person in charge of that FDA policy was
Monsanto's former attorney, who later became their
vice president.
Buying products that are organic or labeled non-
GMO are two ways to limit your family's risk.
Another is to avoid products containing any
ingredients from the seven GM food crops: soy, corn,
cottonseed, canola, Hawaiian papaya, and a little bit
of zucchini and crook neck squash. This means
avoiding soy lecithin in chocolate, corn syrup in
candies, and cottonseed or canola oil in snack foods.
Www.ResponsibleTechnology.org
13
 PAU CONTINGENT PLAN FOR CROPS
* Dr. Charanjit Singh Gumtala
LUDHIANA, JULY 13 With the on-set of rainy season,
a flood like situation has developed in some parts of the
state. In the districts of Patiala, Mansa, Ropar,
Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar the crops
in the field have been affected badly.
Keeping in view the current situation, the Punjab
Agricultural University has chalked out a contingent
plan for the crops.
Giving details, the Director of Extension Education,
Dr. M.S.Gill said that farmers have been advised to
adopt various measures to deal with the situation. In the
areas where the impact of rains is not so severe, farmers
can arrange for the nursery of basmati.
July is a proper month for transplanting basmati crop,
he said. Two varieties namely, Basmati-370 and
Basmati-386 can be sown directly, said Dr. Gill adding
that when the water drains in the field, the sowing can
be undertaken through broadcasting or using drum
seeder.
When the flooded areas will reach the wattar condition,
the mash varieties Mash-114, Mash-338 and Mash-1-1
can be sown using 6-8 kg seed per acre. This will give
3-3.5 q/acre yield of mash, said Dr. Gill. Maize,
particularly the varieties PMH-2 and JH-3459 can also
be grown using 8 kg seed per acre.
In addition to comforting the demand of green fodder,
the green cobs from the maize crop can provide good
profit to the farmers. This crop can be followed with
late wheat or sunflower, said Dr. Gill
. stock of 25 quintal of toria which they can obtain for
A mixture of maize and bajra using a seed rate of 15 kg
maize and 3 kg bajra can be grown for fodder which
will be available after 40 days.
The fields reaching wattar condition in the first week of
September can be sown with toria varieties PBT-37 and
TL-15 using 1.5 kg seed per acre and maintaining a line
to line distance of 30 cm.
The crop takes around 90 days for maturity. The
14 Kisan Ki Awaaz
farmers have also been suggested to grow a mixture of
toria and gobhi sarson crops in the middle of
September.
For this, one kg seed per acre of each will be required.
After preparing the fields, the toria seeds can be sown
by broadcast and gobhi sarson in rows 45 cm apart.
The toria crop will mature in end December while
gobhi sarson in end March.
Farmers can also grow vegetables. August is suitable
for growing radish, cucurbits like bottlegourd,
bitterguard and lufa, etc. Lobia (cowpea) can also be
grown for vegetables.
The farmers may obtain nursery of brinjal and tomato
from areas unaffected by floods. Dr. Gill said that peas
varieties Arkel and Matar Ageta-6 can be grown in end
September which can yield green pods after 60-65
days.
The seed rate for these varieties is 45 kg per acre
maintaining an inter-row spacing of 30 cm. Dr. Gill
cautioned that for early crop of peas seed treatment
with Bavistin (1 g per kg. seed) must be followed.
The crop of chilli growing in the field need protection
against fruit rot, anthracnose and wilt diseases which
become serious in rainy season. The PAU
recommendations need to be followed to keep the
diseases under check.
Dr. Gill informed the farmers that PAU has a seed
sowing.
He mentioned that the University has formulated
teams to visit different areas under floods to study the
ground situation and advice farmers about the
contingent measures required, if any.
Www.bharatsandesh.com
August - 2010
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 15
 A Brief Report of Convention
“Impact of Global Climate Change
on Agriculture in Russia and India”
New Delhi, July 28, 2010: The Convention
“Impact of Global Climate Change on Agriculture in
Russia and India”, organized by Bharatiya Krishak
Samaj jointly with Russian Centre of Science &
Culture in the capital was addressed by prominent
academics, agricultural scientists,
environmentalists, M.P.s, and others, and attended
by a large gathering of agriculturists representing
several Indian states.The speakers were unanimous
in making a clarion call for joint efforts by Russia
and India on reducing the negative impact of global
climate change. On this occasion Hon'ble Smt.
Sonia Gandhi Chairperson, UPA and Dr. M.
Veerappa Moily, Hon'ble Union Minister of Law
& Justice send their good wishes for the success of
the programme.
In introductory address President, Bharatiya
Krishak Samaj, Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary said
that Climate change is a reality and the main cause of
the present situation is on account of the
anthropogenic activities disturbing the composition
of the atmosphere resulting in higher concentration
of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) which accumulates along
with other green house gases (GHG) like methane
and nitrous oxide and contribute to increase in
surface temperature of the earth. The main
contributors have been the developed countries like
US and EU but now other developing countries like
China are slowly replacing as the main polluters.
However, the per capita emission reveals that the
main emitters are the developed countries. The
consequences of these emissions are already visible
with disturbance in climate which in turn is touching
everyone's life. Climate is an important factor of
agricultural productivity. Climate change is likely to
impact agriculture and food security across the
globe. In Another serious challenge confronting the
agriculture is the competition for water resources
increases, and the frequency of extreme
temperatures changes.
Voicing his concern on the negative impact of global
16 Kisan Ki Awaaz
climate change, the Chief Guest H.E. Lt. Gen.
(Retd.) M.M. Lakhera, Governor of Mizoram,
noted that the developing countries like India are
highly vulnerable to its potential impact, adding that
ironically the high-emission polluters in developed
counties are going to be the beneficiaries of climate
change and not its victims as far as food production is
concerned. The world community needs to come
together to discuss mitigation and adaptation
strategies to counter global warming and climate
change so that the poor are not made to carry the full
burden of this man-made disaster, the Chief Guest
said and added that what we need to do is to improve
our traditional seeds in the Indian environment to
achieve higher production by better means of water
harvesting, soil fertility and organic fertilizers.
Earlier, welcoming the gathering, Mr. Sergey Isaev,
Head of Science and Technology, RCSC, said that
global warming is the observed increase in the
average temperature of the Earth's atmoslphere and
oceans in recent decades and its project continuation
into the future. He pointed out that Russia is today
the world leader in reducing green house gas
emissions. Russia accounts for half of all the
reduction in emissions in the world over the last 20
years.
Making a clarion call on joint efforts by India and
Russia towards reducing the impact of global climate
change largely affecting mainly agricultural
production, Mr. Oscar Fernandes, M.P.,
Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Human Resource Development, laid emphasis
on focusing more on organic manure in agriculture,
water conservation and water management.
Globally, all societies will be vulnerable to changes
in food production, quality and supply under climate
change along with their consequent socio-economic
pressures. Climate change is also expected to affect
agricultural and livestock production, hydrologic
balances, input supplies and other components of
agricultural systems.
August - 2010

Pronounsing a note of warning that developed
countries are more responsible for climate change,
Mr. Harish Rawat, Minister of State for Labour
and Employment, Government of India, said that
those responsible should do the needful in the matter.
In India, over 90 per cent of the people perform green
job and they do not harm environment. Our
Government is more concerned about agri-
measures, and this is the major one among the eight
missions it has launched, he noted.
Assessing the substantial climate change of recent
years influencing all aspects of human life and
activities, H.E. Mr. Andrei A. Sorokin, Charge d'
Affaires, Embassy of the Russian Federation in
India, pointed towards the green house gases and
aerosol upsetting the radioactive balance of the
system contributing to global warming. Citing the
fact that Russia is one of the countries where
agriculture depends largely on climate fluctuation,
Mr. Sorokin said that the impact of climate change
on agriculture in Russia is very complicated and
little-investigated. He expressed the hope that joint
efforts of scientists from India and Russia will
facilitate the introduction of innovative technologies
and more effective cooperation in such critical areas
as quality improvement systems for maintaining soil
fertility and preventing land degradation, saving and
mobilization of the gene pool of plants resources,
effective biotechnologies for the selection of species
with higher productivity and resistance to
unfavourable environmental factors, the
establishment of national systems of agro-
ecological monitoring. Such cooperation could not
only strengthen food security of our countries, but
also make it possible to reduce the negative impact
of global climate change, Mr. Sorokin concluded.
Maj. Gen. (Retd.) R. M. Kharab, Chairman,
Animal Welfare Board of India, explained the
negative effects creeping in the environment on
account of human negligence and underlined
various measures to obtain food security and better
agricultural production.
Mr. Aboni Roy, M. P., in his observation referred to
the imperative of stalling the efforts of developed
countries in damaging the global climate with a view
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
to maintaining the ecological balance.
Mr. Madan Lal Sharma, M.P., expressed the view
that we in India are blessed with the greenery
whereas the Western countries in abject violation of
norms spoil the environmental harmony and
balance.
Mr. Sajjan Singh Verma, M. P., called for more and
more efforts to make our nature eco-friendly aimed it
ensuring a sumptuous and comfortable climatic
environment.
Mr. D. D. Lapang, Former Chief Minister of
Meghalaya, Chairman, Nearth-East Congress
Committee, said that climate change is a reality
affecting agriculture and food security across the
globe. He made an emphatic note on rising to the
occasion to meet this challenging phenomenon.
Mr. Sunil Shastri, Ex M.P., described agriculture as
the soul of the country's economy and agriculturists
the backbone of our people. Referring to the global
warming as a dangerous signal, he warned that
consistent efforts are the need of the hour to contain
it.
Mr. P. K. Thungan, Former Chief Minister of
Arunachal Pradesh, underscored the great role
India and Russia can play together joining other
nations in confronting the serious issue of global
warming thereby ensuring a harmless and safe
atmosphere.
Mr.Harikesh Bahadur Ex. M.P., expressed the
views that change of climate is effecting our
agriculture productivity and the ground water level is
going down.
Mr. Atul Kumar Anjan, Secretary, CPI, in his
address was critical on the role of developed Western
countries whose negligent attitude towards the
crucial condition on global warming, which needs to
be met with.
Dr. T. Meinya, M.P., in his presidential remarks
pin pointed the suggestions and observations made
by the distinguished speakers contributing to
tackling of global warming so as to ensure ecological
balance and a pure and peaceful environment.
17
Sh. Sangh Priya Gautam, former Union Minister,
Smt.Neeva Konwar, Member, National
Commission for Woman(Govt. of India), Sh. Oris
Syiem Myriaw, Member National Commission
for Scheduled Trides (Govt. of India), Capt.
Praveen Davar & Sh. Ranji Thomas, Secretaries,
All India Congress Committee, Jathedar
Rachhpal Singh, Sh. K.Sareen, Sh. T.N.Fotedar,
Sh. Sunil Dang, Sh. N. K. Agarwal, Director, Crop
Care Federation, Sh. Nurul Huda (Ex.M.P.) &
Sh. N.K. Shukla Joint Sect. (All India Kisan
Sabha), Sh. Ajay Gupta (ICCR), Sh.Hatam Singh
Nagar, Gen.sect.(UPCC), Ch. Raghunath Singh,
Prof. Kishore Gandhi, Dr. Sanjay Kaushik, Sh.
Dhirendra Pratap-Uttrakhand, Sh. Manish
Nagpal (Ex Minister, Uttrakhand), Prof. Sanjay
Jadhav, President, Maharashtra Krishak Samaj,
Ch. Mahabir Gulia , President, Haryana Krishak
Samaj, Ch. Ram Karan Solanki President, Delhi
Krishak Samaj, Ch. Bijendar Dalal, President,
Palwal Krishak Samaj, Smt. & Sh. Raja Matin
Noori, Sh. Prahlad Tyagi, Sh. Manish Chaudhary
(Debas), and other prominent persons attended
the programme.
climate change.
5) Special Mission initiated at the Country level to
shift crop acreage to Course Cereal and
Millets to enhance nutrition value of food basket
and help agriculture to adapt to climate change.
6) Free all the water bodies like ponds, lakes and
tanks from illegal possession as per revenue record
of every village and reforms initiated at the state
level to rectify the same and scale up the level of
water harvesting at a decentralized level.
7) Special Intervention from Indian Government to
regulate the flood water for effective recharge
using deep bore technologies at suitable depths.
8) Scaling up the organic agriculture and developing
model centre of excellence and shift agriculture
subsidies for intensive organic practices.
9) Revitalise the rural credit and crop insurance in
the context of Climate change.
10) Launching of Sustainable Traditional
Agricultural Revolution (STAR) using local
resources for beating climate change.

The following resolutions were passed in the

convention

Key interventions needed to scale indian

agricultural challenges from climate change.

India has to takes on globally the climate change

issues it needs to drastically reform its internal
agricultural policy preparing itself in a war footing
on mitigation and adaption. As part of the policy
suggestion it was found that the following
intervention would be needed immediately to equip
Indian Agriculture to take on climate change:

1) Zero Tolerance to conversion of agricultural land

for non-agricultural use.
2) A resolve to make few regions in India chemical
and synthetic fertiliser free by 2020.
3) An urgent initiative or a bill to conserve biomass
in the farm and Waste Recycling for
Agriculture.
4) Incorporate in situ tree planting in all farming,
adopt a Mixed farming as means to combat

18 Kisan Ki Awaaz August - 2010

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mUgksusa yaxM+k jkssx dk ,d Hkh mnkgj.k ugha vkfn ns'kksa esa gSA [kslkjh esa ektnw vksMki
ns[kk tcfd Hkkjr ds vusd fgLlksa esa ;g ekuo ikpu izS.kkyh esa iwjh rjg foPNsfnr
nky mxkbZ ,oa [kkbZ tkrh gSA gks tkrk gSA 'kjhj esa mlds foijhr vlj
muds vuqlkj iqjkus le; esa Hkh [kslkjh ugha Mkyus okyh ek=k tek gksus dk rks loky gh
nky ds ,d ek= vkgkj ds :i esa mi;ksx vksMki gksrkA okLro esa vYi ek=k esa 'kjhj eas
djus okys yksxksa esa ,d izfr'kr Hkh mlds ykHknk;d dh ekStwnxh ekuo 'kjhj ds fy;s
nq”ifj.kke ds f'kdkj ugha gq,A bfFk;ksfi;k gh gSA
esa gky ds 1995-98 ds ladzked dky esa
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 19
[kslkjh nky esa fo”kSys rRoksa dh ekStwnxh ds
gks&gYys ds chp bl nky esa ik, tkus okys
ykHknk;d gkseksvktZfuu uked ukWu izksVhu
vehuks ,flM dh mis{kk gqbZA
[kslkjh esa gkseksvktZfuu dh ektSwnxh dh
[kkst ds ckn vc ;g irk pyk gS fd og
ekuo 'kjhj eas vklkuh ls ip tkrk gS vkSj
xHkkZoLFkk ds vafre nkSj esa egRoiw.kZ Hkwfedk
fuHkkrk gSA
gekjh jDr lapkj iz.kkyh esa ukbZfVªd
vkWDlkbZM ¼,u-vks-½ dh egRoiw.kZ Hkwfedk
ekuh xbZ gSA ;g gekjs eTtk ra= dk
izkFkfed ladrs d.k gSA gekjs 'kjhj esa
ukbZfVªdvkWDlkbZM dk mRiknu vehuks
,flM vkftZukbu ds tfj;s gksrk gS tks
'kjhj esa vYi ek=k esa ekStwn jgrk gSA
[kslkjh nky esa ekStwn gkseksvkftZukbu dks
'kjhj esa ukbZfVªdvkWDlkbZM ds mRiknu dk
mi;ksxh ek/;e ik;k x;k gSA bl rjg
vkftZukbuZ ls Hkh vPNs ukbZfVªdvkWDlkbZM
ds mRiknu ds :i esa [kslkjh esa ekStwn
gkseksvkftZukbu ekuo 'kjhj ds fy;s
egRoiw.kZ ik;k x;k gSA
vkt ;wjksi vesfjdk esa dbZ ukscy iqjLdkj
fotsrk oSKkfud izfrfnu vf/kd ek=k esa
vkftZukbZu ds lsou dh lykg nsa jgs gS
D;ksafd ;gjDr lapkj iz.kkyh ds fy;s
ykHknk;d gS vkSj gkseksvkftZukbu dh
ekStwnxh ds dkj.k [kslkjh nky ekuo 'kjhj
ds fy; s,d ojnku cu xbZ gSA
dbZ v/;;uksa us ;g fl) dj fn;k gS fd
ukbZfVªd vkWDlkbM jDrpki dks fu;af=r
djrk gS] dksysLVªkWy dks ?kVkrk gS] 'kjhj dh
{kerk c<+krk gS] Lej.k 'kfDr rst djrk gS
vkSj ân;k?kkr dh laHkkoukvksa dks de
djrk gSA bUgha x.kkqsa ds dkj.k MkWDVj jko us
[kslkjh nky dks ekuo tkfr ds fy;s bZ'ojh;
nsu djkj fn;k gSA
ukscy iqjLdkj izkIr oSKkfud ukbZfVªd
vkWDlkbZM dks ân;k?kkr ls cpkus ckyk
^^tknqbZ ijek.kq** ekurs gSA bl ukrs 'kjhj
20 Kisan Ki Awaaz
esa ukbZfVªd vkWDlkbM ds mRiknu dh {kerk
j[kusokyh gkseksvkftZfuu eqDr [kslkjh nky
dks ^^tknqbZ nky** dgk tkuk pkfg;sA
[kslkjh nky esa ekStwn vkMki dkss eTtk fo”k
ds :i esa cnuke fd;k x;k] fcuk bl ckr
dk fopkj fd;s fd ;g vksMki ekuo ikpu
iz.kkyh esa iwjh rjg foPNsfnr gks tkrk gS
rFkk og iwjh rjg 'kjhj esa tek ugha gksrkA
gky ds v/;;u ls ;g Hkh irk pyk gS fd
de izek.k esa vksMki dh ekStnxh w'kjhj ds
fy;s ykHkizn gSA og 'kjhj esa ,sls ,utkbe
dks lfdz; djrk gS tks 'kjhj ds fy;s
vko';d gksrs gSA
bu oSKkfud rF;kas ij xkSj fd;k tkrk rks
nky ds :i esa nSfud vkgkj esa [kslkjh fdl
rjg gkfudkjd ugha gS] mlesa ekStwn vksMki
ekuo ikpu iz.kkyh esa foPNsfnr gksus ls
gkfu jfgr gks tkrk gS] blds foijhr
[kslkjh esa ekStwn vksMki vkSj
gkseksvkftZukbu LokLF; ds fy;s ykHkdkjh gS
vkSj blfy;s bl nky dks cnuke djuk
cUn dj mldk mRiknu c<+k;k tkuk
pkfg;sA
v/;{k] ,dsMeh vkWQ U;qVªh'ku bEizqOgesUV] ukxiqj
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August - 2010
National Round Table On FTAs With European Union, Israel
And Its Impact On Indian Agriculture

New Delhi , 29th July, 2010, All India Kisan Sabha (4 Saidul Haque, CPI(M) and Prabodh Panda, CPI and
Ashoka Road), All India Kisan Sabha (4 Windsor Place), Prasenjit Bose, Convenor, Research Unit, CPI(M)
Agragami Kisan Sabha and Samyukt Kisan Sabha jointly among others. The Round Table was presided over by
organised a National Round Table on the issue of Free K.Varadha Rajan, General Secretary, AIKS (4 Ashoka
Trade Agreements with European Union and Israel and Road) and C.K.Chandrapan, President, AIKS (4
its impact on Indian agriculture . The Round Table began Windsor Place).
with the Atul Kumar Anjaan, General Secretary, AIKS (4
Windsor Place) introducing the subject. S.Ramachandran More than hundred delegates from different States
Pillai, President, AIKS (4 Ashoka Road) placed the attended the Round Table and many of them placed their
Resolution. views. After the discussions the resolution was
unanimously
Introducing the adopted. It was
issue Atul also decided that a
A n j a a n delegation of the
questioned the d i f f e r e n t
rationale for the organisations will
utter secrecy in present the
which the FTA resolution to the
negotiations are Prime Minister,
going on and the Agriculture
called upon the Minister and the
Government to C o m m e r c e
make negotiation Minister and also
texts public. petition the
S.Ramachandra Parliament. The
n Pillai stressed R o u n d Ta b l e
that the FTAs are decided to
being used as an intensify the
alternative mode struggle against
to push forward the arbitrary and
the agenda of Free Trade more aggressively in the context unilateral signing of FTAs disregarding the Parliament
of the breakdown of the WTO negotiations. The EU FTA and the States.
will seriously compromise the livelihoods of the
peasantry, workers and rural poor as well as public health Resolutions
he said. He also stressed that the dairy sector and millions
of dairy farmers will be adversely affected by the FTA. In the backdrop of the agrarian crisis and the global
He called for a White Paper on WTO and its impact on the economic crisis this Round Table expresses serious
peasantry and said that no FTA should be signed without concern at the manner in which the Government is
approval of the Parliament and State Governments. entering into Free Trade Agreements. This will only lead
to a further intensification of the agrarian crisis and its
Naren Dey, Agriculture Minister, West Bengal spoke on implications for the peasantry, the working class as well
behalf of the Agragami Kisan Sabha and as the poor could be disastrous. The breakdown of the
N.Chandrashekharan Nair spoke on behalf of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations has caused a stalemate
Samyukt Kisan Sabha and seconded the Resolution. The which has not been overcome despite various efforts.
Round Table was addressed by Dr.Krishan Bir
Chaudhary, President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, Afsar The immediate reason for the breakdown was the inability
Jafri, Focus on the Global South, Members of Parliament

August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 21

of the EU and the USA to arrive at any agreement on the
controversial issues, particularly on agricultural
subsidies. In the context of the breakdown of the Doha
Round of WTO negotiations, a devious alternative very
much entrenched within the Free Trade Paradigm has
emerged: a myriad of Free Trade Agreements. In the
backdrop of the global financial crisis the developed
capitalist countries in the EU and USA are cautious and
also want to pass on the burden of the crisis to countries
like ours.
Developed capitalist countries are resorting more and
more to Bilateral Agreements with individual developing
countries to push forth the agenda of Free Trade. Bilateral
Free Trade Agreements could also serve to break the
possibility of any united stand by developing countries in
multilateral forums like the WTO. Not merely the
developed capitalist countries but also the ruling classes
in countries like India are enthusiastically taking to the
idea. The urge of the Indian ruling classes to have a share
in the global market and their drive to earn profits is
sought to be addressed through the FTA route. The FTAs
are different from the bilateral trade agreements that were
being entered into earlier. The scope of FTAs is many
times more than such agreements and covers the entire
gamut of issues ranging from goods and services to
investment and Government procurement.
The difference between the FTAs and the earlier trade
talks is that while the multilateral talks under WTO were
relatively open with texts in the public domain, the FTA
talks are shrouded in secrecy. The Congress-led UPA
Government has also kept the Parliament and State
Governments in the dark about the actual content of these
FTAs. Now the Government is finalizing an FTA with the
European Union and FTAs with Israel and Japan are
among the 56 FTAs in the pipeline. The numerous FTAs
in the pipeline reflect a policy shift by the current
Government and the indiscriminate signing of FTAs
under the veil of secrecy raises some serious concerns.
India-EU FTA and Trade In Agricultural
Commodities:
Agriculture is a very small component of the total trade
between EU and India at present. India ranks around 12th
in EU list of top trading partners in Agriculture. On the
export side however, India ranks even lower. Of total EU
agricultural exports to the world, India ranked 41st in
2007. The main reason for such ranking was primarily the
mismatch of product categories.
EU imports primarily edible fruits nuts, oil seeds and
22 Kisan Ki Awaaz
oleaginous fruits, coffee, tea, spices and other such
tropical items which India exports. However, EU exports
products like beverages, spirits and vinegar, dairy
products, eggs natural honey, tobacco and products,
meats etc which do not feature in the top imported
agricultural commodities of India. In agriculture, EU is a
net importer of raw products; Tropical products, oilseeds
and fruits and vegetables form the bulk of it. However, in
processed agricultural products, EU is a net exporter with
a total surplus of Euro 205 Billion in 2007. India has been
exporting products like basmati rice, processed fruits and
vegetables, floriculture, jaggery and confectionary etc to
EU. In terms of imports from EU, wheat has in recent
times featured high in the list, given India had to import
wheat in 2006-07 due to domestic shortage. The EU is
very keen on the FTA with India because it wants to have a
major share of the Indian market for the above mentioned
products and processed food products. EU seeks to force
India into exporting raw materials and importing
processed agricultural and food items post FTA. EU will
try to push its top export products like dairy, processed
coffee and tea and animal meat products, which do not
feature in the top items imported by India.
The main thrust of the EU-India FTA, from EU's point of
view is to raise the market share of EU primary
commodity exports to India as it is one of the largest and
fastest growing markets in the world. Their effort is to
find an ever expanding market for their subsidised wheat
and dairy products. India will not stand to benefit much
because the EU are signing FTAs with many other
developing countries and whatever advantage India has
presently will be short-term and we will have to compete
with tropical agricultural goods from these countries
which will also flood the EU market.
What then is the urgency that is propelling the Indian
ruling classes to sign the FTA? They are eyeing the
possibilities which the services sector could receive and
the opening of investment opportunities for the Indian
monopoly houses. They hope that this will promote the
interests of the Indian big monopolies to get markets for
their goods and services as well as investment
opportunities. In this pursuit they are however sacrificing
the interests of the peasantry, workers, the poor and
seriously compromising their livelihoods.
Drastic Cuts in Tariffs and Increased Imports:
The India-EU FTA envisages a lowering of Indian tariffs
to zero or near zero levels for 90 per cent of the
agricultural products, while the huge agricultural
subsidies enjoyed by the farmers in EU countries remains
August - 2010
unaltered. This will ensure that EU can still continue to
dump subsidized farm products in the Indian market.
Indian farmers who are not having any such support
cannot compete with the EU farmers. Tariff barriers used
by India to protect its industry and agriculture are being
dismantled even as the EU uses non-tariff barriers such as
engineering and phyto-sanitary standards and also heavy
subsidies, particularly in agriculture. Tariff negotiations
at the WTO were on bound rates (maximum applicable
rates), which is different from actual rates imposed. EU
average bound agricultural tariff rates are very low
(15.9% in 2009) compared to India (114.2% in 2009).
The FTA commitments to bring tariff rates to 0 or near 0
for 90% of products means that India stands to face
massive protection loss, much more than EU. Already
29.9% of India's agricultural exports to EU are already
duty free while the rest face low EU tariffs. So India's gain
in agricultural exports will hardly increase, as compared
to EU's exports which will see a quantum jump.
Death Knell For Millions of Dairy Farmers:
The EU has been aggressively arguing for the opening up
of the dairy sector in India by claiming that the taxes
levied by India on imported food products were
unrealistically high. Europe's dairy companies have
identified the high tariffs as the main obstacle to
expanding their commercial ties with India. Dairy Sector
in India is estimated to employ 90 million people a
majority of whom are women. A 2009 study by the Centre
for Trade and Development, which monitors economic
issues affecting South Asia, found that women would
bear the brunt of any moves to expose India's dairy sector
to grossly unequal competition from European imports.
Women are estimated as comprising 75 million of the
employees in dairy sector. Dairy sector is of crucial
importance to small and marginal farmers as well as the
landless poor and a significant source of income for
millions of families. The very existence of the vibrant
network of cooperative milk federations and women's
groups will be under threat.
Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS+ Commitments
and FTA Compliant Laws:
On Intellectual Property the EU is demanding TRIPS +
provisions and re-writing Indian patent and copyright
laws. TRIPS + commitments on Intellectual Property
Rights (IPR) would severely affect India's ability to
provide access to affordable medicines, to protect
farmers' rights to seeds and to uphold access to
knowledge, thus undermining people's livelihoods and
achievements in healthcare, agriculture, and education
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
and research. EU and Japan wants the extension of patent
protection by five years and more barriers for generic
manufacturers using patent linkage and data exclusivity.
Data Exclusivity notably was not mandatory under WTO.
All these measures are attempts to extend the sphere of
patents and retain their monopoly well past the normal
time period of 22 years granted under TRIPS. If agreed
upon, this will increase costs and delay the process of
bringing generic drugs into the market as well as
perpetuate the monopoly of few pharmaceutical giants.
The EU also seeks that India brand as “counterfeit” all its
pharmaceutical exports to other countries through EU
territory if they are not in conformity with EU's patent
laws. What goes on unnoticed by many is the fact that
preceding the FTAs there is an unusual hurry to bring
about legislations that would be FTA compliant. A careful
scrutiny of most of the recent decisions and Acts proposed
including the Seed Bill, Pesticide Management Bill,
Nutrient Based Subsidy Regime in Fertilisers and
Protection and Utilisation of Public Funded Intellectual
Property (PUPFIP) Bill 2008 to name a few clearly
indicate such a tendency. The PUPFIP Bill allows the
plant varieties developed through public funds would be
protected under intellectual property rights. Both EU and
Japan are said to be pressing for India to join the
International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of
Plants-1991 (UPOV).
This will seriously compromise the right of the peasantry
to grow, sow, re-sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell
their farm seeds and planting material. The UPOV goes
far beyond even what is required by TRIPS. Data
Exclusivity for Agro-Chemical Industry provided by the
Pesticide Management Bill also clearly seems to be aimed
to make Indian laws compatible to EU-FTA. Regulations
on Government purchases as well as the opening up of
India to waste dumping at low or zero tariffs are other
crucial concerns emanating from these FTAs.
Most Favoured Nation Status and Special &
Differential Treatment:
The India-EU FTA envisages automatic extension of
MFN status to the EU, implying that a favourable
treatment by India to any other country on matters
covered under the FTA must be automatically replicated
in trade with EU. However, India which enjoyed 'Special
and Differential Treatment' under the multilateral system,
will cease to enjoy it as the EU FTA calls for full
reciprocity. This must be seen in contrast with India's
position in the WTO which was strongly opposed to
providing unbridled access to Indian markets by reducing
23
tariffs to the lowest possible. India had along with other
developing countries had unitedly ensured the institution
of 'Special and Differential Treatment' especially in the
context of the Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA)
negotiations where developed countries called for such
drastic cuts in tariffs. This seriously compromises India's
interests and only furthers the monopoly interests of the
EU MNCs.
Liberalisation of Services, Investment and
Government Procurement:
The EU FTA has brought back the focus on Government
Procurement, Investment and Competition which were
together known as 'Singapore Issues' in the WTO
negotiations. WTO had removed these issues from
ongoing negotiations due to opposition from developing
countries with India playing a significant role. The
liberalisation of services markets will seriously
undermine the capability of elected bodies to develop and
regulate strong public services. The commercialisation of
these services will render essential services inaccessible
for poor people. The global economic crisis has exposed
the risks of increased financial liberalisation and de-
regulation of financial services. In such circumstances
while Governments across the world are recognizing the
need for closer regulation of this sector any move to
further liberalise is irrational and against our interests.
Allowing opportunity to MNCs for effective competition
in local market will adversely affect Indian farmers and
small entrepreneurs. The scope of Government's
intervention for building domestic firms, providing jobs
and fostering domestic value-addition will be greatly
reduced by further liberalisation of investment while
simultaneously it increases the rights of investors without
corresponding responsibilities to fulfill social and
environmental requirements. It also provides for the
prohibition of capital controls which is an important tool
for ensuring macro-economic stability during financial
crises.
With the liberalisation of its services and investment,
India may have to privatise some essential sectors for
development such as environment, health and education
services. EU is seeking opening up of Government
procurement of Central, State and Local level including
public utilities of goods and services. This can undermine
the scope for Governments to address poverty and
inequality by directing Government spending to Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and marginalised
groups as well as the scope to use Government
procurement to provide critical support for domestic
firms during times of economic recession.
24 Kisan Ki Awaaz
The urgency with which the UPA Government is carrying
forward its negotiations for an FTA with Israel which is
guilty of crimes against humanity is condemnable. Israel
will tend to benefit as a big exporter of processed food,
chemical fertilisers, other agro-chemicals and
agricultural implements.
In the context of decontrol of fertiliser prices the farmers
are going to face extreme hardship even as MNCs based
in Israel and other countries will rake in huge profits at
their expense. Our light industries will also be adversely
affected. It is clear that the FTAs with EU, Israel and
Japan are going to adversely affect the livelihoods of
people and will put a question mark on employment
generation as well as poverty alleviation. Food security
will be undermined, Public health will be a casualty and
the poor will find it impossible to access quality
medicines for treating major diseases.
Indian farmers have been hit hard by the earlier FTAs and
we have seen how the plantation sector, oilseeds sector,
textile industry, light manufacturing industry and
fisheries have been facing their adverse implications.
Cheap imports of tea, coffee, spices, fish products and
palm oil have led to drastic fall in domestic production
and destruction of livelihoods.
Armers' suicides have been high in regions growing some
of these crops. There have been widespread protests
against the India-ASEAN FTA in different parts of the
country. Despite this the Government is carrying forward
its agenda of trade liberalisation compromising our
interests. This National Round Table calls upon the
peasants, workers, the poor and middle classes to unite for
intensifying struggles against such FTAs and resolves to
oppose any move that will compromise the interests of the
country and its people.
We demand:
 A White Paper on WTO and its Impact on Indian
Peasantry.
 No FTA should be signed without the approval of
the Parliament and State Governments.
 Immediate release of the negotiating texts in the
public domain.
 Wi d e s p r e a d c o n s u l t a t i o n s w i t h S t a t e
Governments, Farmers' representatives, Experts and
Scientists.
 Strengthen Trade Barriers and Provisions that
Protect Indian Agriculture, Dairy and Public Health
Concerns.
August - 2010
 Back to traditional varieties
Farmers of Tumkur and Chitradurga areas of the state are going back to growing
traditional saline-tolerant paddy. Forgotten types of indigenous rice varieties can
offer a home-grown solution to increasing soil salinity, writes Anitha Reddy
Hit by crop failure because of increased salinity in
the soil owing to water surge, farmers of Tumkur
and Chitradurga areas of Karnataka are reverting
to cultivation of traditional saline-tolerant paddy.
The fields of farmers in the region that adjoins the
tank command area has become saline because of
the stagnation of water.
Farmers here have always faced problems about
salinity, but have known to cope with it by
growing traditional saline-tolerant varieties that
they have conserved for generations.
But in the last few decades, the situation has
turned grave and salinity in the soil has increased
tremendously. Farmers in this area say that with
changes in agricultural techniques and patterns,
and extensive use of chemical usage, soil salinity
has increased.
Introduction of high-yielding varieties with the
aim of increasing production, has not only
resulted in crop failure, but has also contributed to
the genetic erosion of traditional landraces.
Earlier, farmers practised crop rotation, used
green manure and grew crops using traditional
methods but now the younger generation lacks
the understanding to cope with saline soil and
does not have the knowledge to use alternate
crops or methods to tide over the situation.
Rise in salinity
With cultivation patterns changing ever since the
1970s, salinity has increased. Now the soil has no
fertility and has become very hard. Raising any
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
crop here is a huge challenge. Soil salinity is
pushing farmers to grow the saline-tolerant
traditional crops their forefathers would cultivate,
says Mallikarjun Hosapalya of Dhanya, a
Tumkur-based organisation that works on revival
of traditional water and seed conservation
practices.
Also, the district receives scanty rainfall and the
soil is very hard. Devkumar of University of
Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore says, “As the
pH level in the soil increases with saline
conditions and low rainfall, there is leaching of
calcium and automatically there is increase in
sodium, which leaves salt deposits.
The sodium tends to reach the surface, making the
soil more saline. Farmers can grow crops only if
the salinity is low, but because of low rainfall the
salinity has increased and only traditional paddy
varieties can tolerate it.”
Some farmers have used alternate techniques as a
coping strategy to deal with the problem of
salinity. But not much has been done with regard
to the yield performance of the varieties.
Farmers here have taken to growing the
traditional varieties as a necessity.
They are familiar with local varieties because
these have many positive characteristics - taste,
price, and milling value are better than that of the
higher-yielding varieties, though yield is less
compared to rice grown in other areas.
But its sustainability requires awareness and
some technical involvement to increase the yield.
25
Dhanya, along with Sahaja Samruddha, has been
working for the past two years with a few farmers
to conserve saline rice varieties.
With participation of knowledgeable farmers, a
reliable approach of collection, evaluation and
systematic cataloguing of available saline-
tolerant rice varieties was initiated and more than
25 varieties were collected from different
locations.
The collected germplasm has been distributed to
farmers for being cultivated at target sites.
On-farm conservation was undertaken mainly to
purify and improve the performance of varieties.
Participatory crop improvement selection has
been found to be more effective for selection and
development of these varieties.
Saline-tolerant diversity
Forgotten types of indigenous rice varieties can
offer a home-grown solution to increasing soil
salinity.
Karnataka has many saline-tolerant traditional
rice varieties that are high in nutritional value and
have medicinal properties, and most are resistant
to extreme drought conditions, diseases and pests
and popular for their taste.
These varieties were grown using natural inputs
such as organic manure. No chemical fertilisers
or pesticides were used.
As Ajjanna Nayaka of Hosahalli in Pavagada
taluk, who is growing Sanna vadlu rice variety for
the past 40 years, says “ this is a fine grained
variety, in fact the grains are of superior quality
than sona masuri variety.
Crop duration is four months and the yield is
about 20 to 25 bags per acre, superior in taste and
very soft when cooked.”
26 Kisan Ki Awaaz
What the survey said...
Some of the other significant saline-tolerant
varieties that were identified during the survey
are : Picha neelu: This is the most popular saline-
tolerant variety, with a crop duration of four-and-
a-half months and grows up to four-five feet in
height.
It has good cooking quality and the grains are
grayish black and white in colour and yield about
20 to 25 quintals per acre. Beli picha neelu is
highly tolerant to saline conditions of soil and
grows within four-and-a-half to five months.
Paddy varieties like Bilithopu vadlu, Kasanella
are unique and highly saline tolerant.
These grow in places where salinity problem
occurs due to erratic rainfall.
Choluchangi also known as Koralu changi: Tip
of the grain has awns and grows profusely with
one application of farm yard manure.
Kasarnellu, Bilitokavdlu, Kari tokavdlu,
Bilipichanellu, Pichanellu, Jowguri have a crop
duration of four to five months and yield about 20
-25 bags per acre.
The grains are bold and long and are cultivated in
Chitradurga and Pavagada. Sannanellu and
Tokepichanellu are small and fine grain varieties.
Mullubatha, Chintapolavodlu, Karichannangi,
Bilichannangi, and Cholu channangi are medium
grains, grown in Sira and Pavagada region.
Http://www.deccanherald.com/content/77972
/back-traditional-varieties.html
August - 2010
 GM Blight-resistant Potatoes Who Needs Them?
While researchers are wasting taxpayers' money to
create hazardous GM blight- resistant potatoes, non-
GM highly blight-resistant varieties are already on
the market, with low carbon impact and all-round
appeal to consumers Dr Eva Novotny
A new trial of genetically modified (GM) crops has
begun in England . The Sainsbury Laboratory at the
John Innes Centre in Norfolk is testing a GM version
of the popular Desiree potato to determine whether,
as in the laboratory, the field-grown GM potato will
remain resistant to late-blight disease.
The challenge to develop such potatoes had already
been taken up in 2007 by the German chemical giant
BASF, in its Plant Science GmbH division; but their
trials ended prematurely without a marketable result.
In fact, all such efforts are unnecessary, as blight-
resistant non-GM potatoes already exist that are also
outstanding in other respects, and further such
varieties are in the pipeline.
Late blight is a serious disease of potatoes
Late blight is “ the most devastating disease of
potatoes and one of the most devastating plant
diseases of any crop .” In the UK, farmers typically
spray potato crops with fungicide 10-15 times a year.
Much effort, therefore, has been put into means of
controlling the disease. As part of good farming
practice, it is clearly advantageous to plant blight
resistant varieties.
The disease can kill all the leaves of a plant within 10
days. It was the cause of the great Potato Famine in
Ireland and western Scotland in the 1840s and 1850s.
The pathogen responsible is Phytophthera infestans,
notionally a fungus but actually more closely related
to brown seaweeds. Warm, humid weather favours
the disease.
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Leaves and stems can be infected, as can the tubers
when spores are washed into the soil by heavy rain.
The disease can be carried from year to year by
tubers that were infected in the previous season.
Although soil is not usually a source of the blight, it is
possible for the disease to be transmitted when both
mating types of the blight pathogen are present in the
soil.
In gardens, it is possible for the disease to be carried
over on infected foliage in an insufficiently hot
compost heap.
Unfortunately, the pathogen is evolving. Until 1976,
there was only the single mating type A1, which had
various strains, all reproducing asexually.
Then mating type A2 appeared in Europe, brought
from Mexico (the probable origin of the blight
pathogens) on imported potatoes. The two types
were able to mate and produced new strains by
sexual reproduction.
Since 2005, a highly aggressive strain A2-Blue13
has developed; causing blight in some potato
varieties that were previously resistant, and it has
become the dominant strain in the UK.
There is always the danger that the pathogen will
evolve into a new strain that can overcome the
resistance of potato varieties now free of the disease,
and development of new varieties needs to take place
on a continuing basis.
New trial by the Sainsbury Laboratory
The Sainsbury Laboratory at the John Innes Centre
in Norfolk, England has received approval for field
trials of GM blight-resistant potatoes, beginning in
2010.
The Laboratory claims that existing non-GM blight-
resistant potatoes suffer from “other deficiencies”,
27
but this claim cannot justly be applied to Sárpo
potatoes, described later.
Natural resistance to blight occurs in some wild,
inedible potato species in South America. Two
genes isolated from these have been transferred to a
potato variety popular in Britain, Desiree, and will
undergo field trials for three years.
Justifying the use of genetic engineering to produce
the new potatoes, the Laboratory claims that :
“Potato breeding is extremely slow and inefficient.
… environmental bacteria was between 'unlikely' and
Breeding is not an exact science and changes many
genes that affect important agronomic traits such as
yield, quality and maturity time.
By using GM we can be sure that only the desired
resistance gene is introduced into the resulting
variety, without changing other characteristics.”
This disingenuous statement is actually false: it is
well known that the random insertion process of
genetic engineering leads to disruption and
rearrangement in the host's own genome, causing
'insertion mutagenesis' in many genes with totally
unpredictable effects (see review in The Case for A
GM-Free Sustainable World, Independent Science
Panel, ISIS publication).
The GM potato also has an antibiotic resistance
marker gene nptII that confers resistance to
kanamycin and neomycin. The Laboratory claims
erroneously that the antibiotic is not used for medical
treatment of either humans or animals.
The Advisory Committee on Releases to the
Environment (ACRE) gave an approving opinion for
the trials, on grounds that
“(a) the likelihood of transfer of a functional gene
from plant material tobacteria is extremely low;
(b) bacteria with resistance to these antibiotics
arewidespread in the environment; and
(c) the acquisition of an intact gene isonly one of the
possible mechanisms by which bacteria may
28 Kisan Ki Awaaz
developresistance.”
This is essentially the same opinion delivered by the
pro-GM European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
when it examined the use of antibiotic resistance
genes in food crops.
On that occasion, however, two senior scientists on
the panel disagreed and issued a minority opinion in
an annex to the statement, saying it was not possible
to assess any adverse effects and that the probability
that the gene could transfer from the GM plants to
'high' .
The Norfolk trials are funded entirely by UK
taxpayers, through the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) .
This is unfortunate and a waste of taxpayers' money,
as even a Monsanto representative acknowledged
that “ultimately [non-GM] biotech offers the greatest
potential” for developing crops with such complex
traits .
Another questionable aspect of the trials, and indeed
of the whole project, is that the parent variety Desiree
is already widely planted.
Thus, a newly invading disease affecting the GM
potato may wipe out a major portion of the UK's
potato harvest, both GM and non-GM.
In fact, GM potatoes for late-blight resistance had
already been trialled and abandoned by another
corporation. German chemical company BASF had
produced GM blight-resistant potatoes.
Field trials were started in 2007, originally planned
for the Irish Republic but moved to England after the
Irish authorities placed very high requirements on
the conduct of the trials, especially the requirement
for safety testing by feeding the potatoes to animals
prior to commencement of trials.
H t t p : / / w w w. i - s i s . o r g . u k / G M _ B l i g h t -
resistant_Potatoes.php
August - 2010
 The dark side of nitrogen;
too much fertilizer is destroying the planet
* David Gutierrez
Reckless overuse of synthetic fertilizers is creating an as bacterial blooms that can produce human disease.
ecological catastrophe, warns a recent feature in Grist
magazine. Other ecological consequences of nitrogen pollution
include lake acidification and general habitat
In traditional farming, the nitrogen available in the degradation.
soil imposes a strict limit on how much food can be
grown. The effects do not stop there: ammonia production is
such an energetically intensive process that fertilizer
Organic methods of nitrogen supplementation manufacture actually accounts for a full 1 percent of
include planting certain leguminous ("nitrogen global carbon dioxide emissions.
fixing") crops or manually applying nitrogen in the
form of manure or compost. Yet all climate bills currently making their way
through the U.S. Congress explicitly exempt
Yet with the so-called "Green Revolution" after World agricultural emissions from regulation.
War II, agronomists widely adopted the Haber-Bosch
process for transforming chemically neutral Mere climate regulation alone is not the answer,
atmospheric nitrogen into the much more volatile however, notes author Stephanie Ogburn.
ammonia.
Only a widescale revisioning of the agricultural
Ammonia soon became the base for a wide array of system and its emphasis on higher yields can shift the
fertilizers, allowing farmers to produce much greater world off the path of nitrogen catastrophe.
yields than had been traditionally possible. This food
boom directly fueled the global population explosion
of the last 70 years. Http://www.naturalnews.com/029187_fertilizer_n
itrogen.html
Unfortunately, due to its intrinsically volatile nature,
so-called reactive nitrogen does not stay where
farmers put it -- it reacts easily with the elements
around it to spread into the air, water and soil. Save Tree,
Researchers estimate that as much as 70 percent of
applied nitrogen ends up outside of the crops being
grown.
Save Water,
To make matters worse, farmers typically apply far Save Fuel,
more fertilizer than they need to, as a sort of insurance
t o p r o d u c e t h e l a rg e s t y i e l d s p o s s i b l e .
To make the Earth Cool.
Excess nitrogen can actually destroy valuable soil
organisms, degrading the soil's agricultural quantity.

It is responsible for the proliferation of aquatic "dead

zones," where agricultural runoff has produced algal
blooms that devour oxygen and choke out fish, as well
- Aastha Chaudhary
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 29
 The government war on raw milk
is an attack against food freedom
* Mike Adams
As a rule of thumb, I don't drink anything that comes out
of a cow. But for the last several thousand years, a large
percentage of the human population has consumed cow's
milk -- a substance that admittedly contains quite an
impressive collection of nutrients.
The problem today is that those nutrients are artificially
modified through pasteurization (cooking) and
homogenization (breaking down fat molecules) to create
a ready-made, highly processed cow's milk beverage with
a long shelf life that can be sold to consumers as "milk.”
In the history of food, pasteurized, homogenized cow's
milk is a relatively new thing. For most of recent history,
milk has been consumed as a fresh, raw beverage, just
hours out of the cow.
Each day's milk was usually harvested that very morning
from the local cow, and most farms had at least one milk
cow. (For many families, it was what kept them alive
through the harsh winters...)
During all these centuries, fresh cow's milk was
considered a nourishing, even lifesaving beverage that
provided people with hard-to-find proteins and fats in
times when calories were hard to come by.
Pasteurization and the road to dead food
This went on until roughly the end of the 19th century,
when pasteurization was introduced to the milk industry
as a way to increase the shelf life of milk by killing the
bacteria that spoil it.
By "cooking" the milk, large milk producers were able to
centralize product production at distant locations (large-
scale dairy farms) and then ship the product to consumers
anywhere in the country.
When kept at the right refrigeration temperature, this
pasteurized milk now had a shelf life many times longer
than raw milk.
So the dairy industry grew profitable and large, and over
the next few generations, Americans got used to "milk"
meaning "pasteurized, homogenized milk" even though it
was an unnatural alteration of the real milk that the
30 Kisan Ki Awaaz
country had grown up on.
Raw milk rediscovered
Fast forward to the 21st century: Now, more and more
consumers are becoming aware of the health benefits of
raw milk. It's loaded with active probiotics, of course,
which we now know increase skin health and digestive
health while potentially even improving cognitive
function.
So naturally, consumers started purchasing raw milk from
their local farmers and coops in order to benefit from this
raw, unprocessed food. (Actually, lots of health-conscious
people have been doing this since the 1960's, but "raw
milk" didn't really become popular among near-
mainstream consumers until just the last few years...)
When people buy raw milk from local farmers, this of
course takes away profits from the large corporate milk
producers that are selling pasteurized, homogenized milk.
So the dairy industry attempted to get the federal
government to destroy the competition (the raw milk
producers).
But instead of just saying, "We want you to destroy our
competition," they made up an excuse, "Raw milk is
dangerous!” Yep: The same beverage that America was
raised on is now considered by the feds to be "too
dangerous to drink."
Sure, you can drink diet soda laced with aspartame or
high-fructose corn syrup -- two ingredients known to
cause degenerative disease -- but you can't drink raw,
wholesome, fresh milk anyway because it's "too
dangerous.”
The idiotic war against raw milk
Now the war is on. State and federal regulatory agencies,
spurred on by the monopolistic business practices of the
dairy industry, have set out to criminalize the sale of raw
milk. They've raided raw milk resellers, arrested raw milk
marketers and seized countless gallons of raw milk to be
destroyed.
Raw milk, the bureaucrats say, is dangerous because it
August - 2010
hasn't been sanitized yet. Raw milk is "dirty" while
cooked, pasteurized or irradiated milk is "clean." And Big
Brother thinks you're not supposed to eat "dirty" foods
like raw milk.
Sure, you can smoke yourself into a lifetime of cancer --
that's fully approved by the government. You can slather
your body with personal care products laced with cancer-
causing chemicals, because that's also approved by the
government.
You can drink brain-busting aspartame, chow down on
diabetes-promoting MSG, or swallow any number of
mouthfuls of processed foods laced with a thousand
different synthetic chemicals that probably cause
everything from cancer to Alzheimer's. Go take a swim in
the Gulf of Mexico and soak up some Corexit dispersant
chemicals -- the government doesn't protect you from any
of that.
But raw milk? Well that's just too dangerous. It's all
natural! And if you're the whored-out U.S. government --
now run by commercial interests -- natural is bad!
The secret government plot to kill all your food
You see, food safety in America has come down to killing
your food. Only "dead food" is "safe food" in the eyes of
the FDA and state health authorities.
That's why they killed your almonds (there are no more
raw almonds commercially available in the United States
of America), and it's the same reason why they're gearing
up to irradiate all your fresh produce.
The government wants to kill your food but it has nothing
at all to do with food safety. If the government were really
interested in food safety, it would ban the stuff that really
promotes disease: Fried fast food, toxic chemical
additives like aspartame, empty calorie ingredients like
white flour and bleached white sugar... you get the idea.
But none of those things have been banned at all. Instead,
of all the thousands of things that are bad for your health,
the government has chosen to single out raw milk as
somehow deserving the most attention -- even thought
raw milk is arguably GOOD for your health and not bad in
the least!
So why does this matter to our freedom? Because now, not
only is the government deciding what's good and bad for
your (and legislating laws against your free choice); but
the government's ability to determine what's good or bad
is flawed in the first place.
August - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Freedom of choice
Like most freedom-loving Americans, I don't think the
government has any business telling you what to eat. (But
then, neither do I think corporations should have Free
Speech to advertise all their junk products, either,
a l t h o u g h t h a t ' s a n o t h e r t o p i c a l t o g e t h e r. )
If some guy in Brooklyn wants to eat himself to death on
hamburgers and corn syrup, that's his right and his choice.
The feds have no business criminalizing his food choices,
even if they do seem rather poorly made.
But even if the feds were to start enforcing its control over
your food, it would only make sense to ban the most
dangerous foods first... you know, the stuff that's really
causing epidemic disease in America.
Stuff like high-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, MSG,
partially-hydrogenated oils, petrochemical-derived
artificial food colors, dangerous chemical preservatives
and so on.
But none of those things are even being considered for any
ban. And that means, by any reasonable logic, that the ban
isn't about your health. It's not about "protecting you"
from dangerous foods.
The government, after all, approves the sale of cigarettes,
alcohol, hair coloring chemicals and a thousand other
things that are terrible for your health.
They aren't interested in protecting your health in the
least. What they are interested in doing is protecting their
corporate masters in the highly influential dairy industry.
And that's what this all comes down to: The war on raw
milk is a juvenile attempt by the federal government to
protect a profitable, powerful industry by destroying its
competition regardless of the consequences to your health
-- and regardless of what freedoms they destroy in the
process.
Your right to buy what you choose has now been
overthrown by the government's desire to protect the
processed-milk dairy industry. And that's why the cow in
my CounterThink cartoon sprays the bureaucrats with raw
milk, shouting, "Take THAT, you bureaucrats!"
Http://www.naturalnews.com/029178_raw_milk_foo
d_freedom.html
31
Widespread male infertility sweeping the globe
* Ethan A. Huff
July 12, 2010 - Nearly 20 years ago, Danish
scientists first broke the news to the world that
men from Western countries seem to be slowly
becoming infertile.
Recent research seems to back this up as well,
with average sperm counts having dropped to half
of what they were 50 years ago.
According to reports, nearly 20 percent of men
between the ages of 18 and 25 have sperm counts
that are abnormally low.
To put this in perspective, consider the fact that in
the 1940s, men had an average of about 100
million sperm cells per millimeter of semen
(m/ml).
Today, the average is around 60m/ml. Those
among the 20 percent with abnormal levels have
less than 20m/ml.
So what is the cause behind decreasing sperm
counts? Realistically, there is probably more than
just one cause.
Environmental toxins, synthetic food and water
additives, and estrogenic substances in food are
all likely culprits.
"It's most likely a reflection of the fact that many
environmental and lifestyle changes over the past
50 years are inherently detrimental to sperm
production," explained Professor Richard
Sharpe, a fertility research expert at the Medical
Research Council, in a U.K. Report.
But what scientists believe may be the biggest
cause of poor semen quality in men has more to do
with what their mothers were exposed to during
32 Kisan Ki Awaaz
pregnancy, than what the men themselves are
exposed to throughout their lifetimes.
A case in point is the disastrous chemical accident
that occurred in 1976 in Seveso, Italy.
The incident caused the highest known human
exposure to toxic chemical dioxin.
It was later revealed that pregnant women who
were exposed to the chemical during that time
bore male children who ended up having poor
sperm counts.
Other studies also seem to lend credence to the
idea that lifelong sperm counts are determined
during the early stages of male fetal development.
Interference with the Sertoli cells, which are
responsible for proper sperm development during
fetal development, can lead to lifelong sperm
production problems in males.
"Maternal-lifestyle factors in pregnancy can have
quite substantial effects on sperm counts in sons in
adulthood, and the most logical mechanism by
which this could occur is via reducing the number
of Sertoli cells," explained Professor Sharpe.
In other words, prenatal exposure to toxic
chemicals is a serious threat to male health, which
ultimately threatens the existence of mankind.
Http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...
August - 2010