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| Shetkari Sanghatana founder Sharad Joshi, Dr C D Mayee, Dr N Seetharama of ABLE, signing the appeal and petition to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture. |
Dear friends,
Following the visit of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and widespread discontent against Bt Cotton expressed by farmers during the committee’s interactions with them, the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) had organised a media interaction with Shetkari Sanghatana founder Prof Sharad Joshi, at Nagpur on March 13, 2012. In the interaction, the organisers circulated ‘a petition of farmers’ addressed to Mr Basudeb Acharia, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture. Here is the text of the petition:
To,
Shri Basudeb Acharia,
Hon’ble Chairman,
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture
Sub: Farmers deprived of voicing their opinion during your recent visit to Vidarbha
Sir,
We, the farmers of Vidarbha, would like to express our pain against certain political groups and organizations denying us the opportunity to voice our opinion during the recent Parliamentary Committee visit while promoting their own vested interests.
Suicides are a matter of grave concern and it pains us the most when our fellow villagers end their lives.
But what angers us is when self proclaimed farmer leaders exploit the situation to meet their own political and self-serving ends. What we actually need are solutions that will help address the reasons that push farmers to take such drastic steps.
Some argue that suicides in Vidarbha are due to hybrid cotton seeds and Bt cotton. This shows how little they know about farmers’ problems, and vested interests deliberately choose to misrepresent the facts.
Cotton farming has improved significantly in the past 10 years and we the famers of Maharashtra have benefitted from hybrid cotton seeds and Bt cotton technologies. The vested interest groups in Vidarbha are ignoring that Bt cotton has reduced our sprays for bollworms and that hybrid cotton seeds have improved yields in comparison with before Bt cotton years. Do they have a ready safe and affordable solution to help us manage insects and other challenges of farming, like biotechnology does?
Bt cotton is the one big change, and the Government in Maharashtra and Delhi need to look at what else is needed to help Vidarbha farmers.
The positive impact Bt cotton had on our lives is widely visible in Vidarbha. Today, there are more pucca houses, our children are going to better schools, we are eating nutritious food and living better lives. The main change is because our income increased over the years when we used hybrid cotton seeds and Bt cotton technologies on 90 per cent of our cotton acres, which have given higher yields and reduced the main bollworm spraying costs. Overall, we lead better lives, have peace of mind and many of use have repaid our financial obligations.
Like you, we farmers are very aware of what is good for us, our family and our fields. Bt cotton has been giving us tremendous value.
We choose to grow cotton. We choose hybrid Bt cotton seeds because we got benefited.
But those who allege that Bt cotton is pushing farmers to the brink of suicides are deliberately trying to remove the one positive change that has happened without looking at the real reasons behind the tragedy nor what else needs to be done for farming success.
For example, this year cotton yields are low because of delayed rainfall, and no repeat rainfall for rejuvenation crop. Bt cotton has nothing to do with it. Where is the rain? Where is the Government providing water supply and irrigation?
Indebtedness, repeated crop failures due to high dependability on weather conditions, poor extension services, lack of institutional credit, lack of other sources of income, create a situation that forces some farmers to commit suicide. Not always the reasons are because of agriculture. Sometimes there are family problems, or lifestyle problems. But the real cause of farmer suicides is indebtedness. It is high time this issue was brought to the fore and you should provide us with solutions to improve our income from and beyond agriculture.
Keeping the interest of the larger farming community in mind, we would like to put forth some demands that will help in uplifting the Vidarbha community and help those in need:
* We need full-time remunerative jobs to earn additional income, to supplement our farm income
* We need affordable institutional credit to be made available to us by co-operatives, saving groups and rural banks
* We need improved extension education for better crop cultivation practices, to increase crop yields and incomes in all current crops
* We need access to better technologies to improve yield and income in current crops
* We need increased irrigation and electricity facilities
* We need adequate and timely supply of fertilizer availability
* We also need higher MSPs and timely opportunity to market
* We need weather-based crop Insurance for our farming community
* We need grants for our children’s education and marriages, especially for families in financial distress
We trust that you will pay closer attention to our problems and our demands, and provide suitable solutions. We humbly ask you to please leave Bt cotton seeds and biotechnology alone, and give what we have asked for the Vidarbha farming community.
We, the undersigned, urge the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture, Union Ministry of Agriculture, and the Government of India to listen to our plea and not listen to self-serving vested interests who are hijacking our real issues to benefit themselves.
It is we who work daily in our fields to feed our family and produce for our country. It is time now that our needs are also adequately taken care of.
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