Dear Hon’ble Prime Minister,

You have promised relief to India’s farmers during your very first visit, to Andhra Pradesh to meet families of farmers who had taken their lives due to indebtedness. Farmers’ suicides are not restricted to Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of farmers in different other parts of India including Punjab -the lands of the Green Revolution- are taking their lives.

Agriculture, which is the backbone of Indian economy and the mainstay of the livelihoods of 2/3 of our people, is clearly in deep crisis. This trend has started immediately after agriculture in India has been through open to the world economy and to the multinational corporations and especially since India has joined WTO. We are now paying the cost of liberalisation and globalisation of our agriculture with lives of our brethren farmers –men and women.

Across the country our farmers are taking the desperate step of ending their life because of the new pressures building upon them as a result of globalisation and corporate take over leading to spread of capital-intensive agriculture. The lure of huge profits linked with clever advertising strategies evolved by the seeds and chemical industries and easy credit for purchase of costly inputs is forcing our farmers into a chemical treadmill and a debt trap. The reality of globalisation is different from the corporate propaganda and from the promises of trade liberalisation and agriculture offered by the World Bank, the WTO and experts and economists sitting in our various ministries.

The impacts of 10 years of trade liberalisation, globalisation and WTO policies have been felt in each and every state with the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab bearing the maximum burden in terms of the high social and ecological costs in terms of farmers paying for globalisation by being forced to sacrifice their lives and livelihoods.

The burden of the deep agrarian distress caused by the increasing cost of production and declining domestic farm prices due to the increased dumping and declining international farm prices has fallen on the small and marginal farmers of this country. This has led to an spurt in the numbers of suicides committed by farmers in the rural India.

Unlike the series of suicides in 1987-88, 1997-98 and 2000 when peasants growing particular crops such as tobacco, cotton, chillies and groundnut ruined themselves, but now farmer suicides stalks every where. No crop appears safe and no section of the small peasantry appears isolated. The overwhelming proportions of the death toll is among small and marginal farmers and tenant cultivators, who have no claims on the land they cultivate and who pay exorbitant rents to the landlords.

In one month between May 14 and June 14 2004, according to the Andhra Pradesh Ryothu Sangam (APRS), 279 peasants have committed suicide after the Congress government assumed office in the Centre and in Andhra Pradesh, however the state government has put the figure at 194. It was during this period when you rushed to the Ananthpur District in Andhra Pradesh to provide relief to some of the family members of the suicide victims.

Farmers are taking their life in almost every state. 65 farmers in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra have committed suicide in 2004, 36 of them committed suicide in June 2004 alone, over debts as little as Rs. 8000. Farmer’s suicides are no longer a feature of drought prone and economically backward districts. The phenomena have spread to all regions including prosperous agriculture belts like Mandya in Karnataka. Over 400 farmers in Karnataka have committed suicide between April 1, and October 25 in 2003. By the end of November 2003, the number of suicides increased to 478.

AoA – Fundamentally anti farmer and pro corporations

This epidemic of farmers' suicide is the real barometer of the stress under which Indian agriculture and Indian farmers have been put by globalisation of agriculture. Growing indebtedness and increasing crop failure are the main reasons that the farmers have committed suicide across the length and breath of rural India. Indebtedness and crop failure are also inevitable outcomes of the corporate model of industrial agriculture being introduced in India through globalisation and WTO policies.

Till now we have not noticed any breakthrough in the different negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) in favour of the developing countries and their farmers. Even though the rich developed countries give commitments of reduced subsidies, elimination of box shifting tactics and reduction of export subsidies, yet they hardly stand on their commitments. Recently EU has provided export subsidies on wheat while it was suppose to eliminate export subsidies. On cotton, despite WTO panel decision, US has not taken any steps in reducing their subsidies on cotton and other crops.

Moreover, the rich nations are adopting every means and ways to protect their farmers. US has coined a new term called “counter-cyclical payments” which basically shifts Amber Box subsidies into Blue Box, for legitimizing subsidies under the 2002 Farm Bill which provides at least US $190 billion over ten years. Developing country like India provides only USD $1 billion worth of indirect subsidies to 550 billion farmers.

At several occasions we have appealed to the government that the farmer producers in the developing countries including India are getting perished because they are facing imports whose prices are depressed because of export subsidies and we are faced with a very unfair competition. For example EU provides subsides of about 1.7 billion euros a year on dairy products which affected the dairy farmers in India and other third world countries. Similarly US is depressing world prices of major food crops. The US 2002 Farm Bill which promised farmers at least US $190 billion over ten years, concentrated on eight areas – cotton, what, corn, soybean, rice, barley, oats and sorghum, all of which are important food crops for the developing countries and are closely linked to food security and rural employment in the South. Despite this, we, the poor small and marginal farmers of India are expected to compete with the highly `subsidies farmers of the developed world.

We have also noticed that the market access in the developed countries is hampered by their maintaining a high tariff on the products of interest to the developing countries besides a plethora of non-tariff barriers. Tariff peaks continue to block exports from developing countries to the first world. For instance, the US, EU, Japan and Canada maintain tariff peaks of 350 to 900 per cent on food products such as sugar, rice, dairy products, meat, fruits, vegetables and fish. Further, the developed world are also using Special Safeguard measures (SSG) to restrict imports from developing countries – Canada reserves the right to use SSG for 150 tariff lines, the EU for 539 tariff lines, Japan for 121 tariff lines, the US for 189 tariff lines and Switzerland for 961 tariff lines. On the other hand only 22 developing countries can use SSG. Moreover, the developed countries have also evolved a clone of the QR system in the form of Tariff Rate Quota’s (TRQ’s), which would further hamper the agricultural trade from developing countries to the developed world. In case of surge of imports, according to our understanding, India is not entitled to use the Special Safeguard Mechanisms since it is only available to those countries, which has tariffed their quantitative restrictions. Hence we are very vulnerable to the surge in agriculture imports and that is the reason our farmers are committing suicides because the excessive imports of agriculture commodities has led to lowering of farm price and farmers are not able to get back their principal amount.

We sincerely watched the recent developments on the AoA negotiations in Geneva and Dalian before the General Council Meeting in the July end. We are completely convinced that the corporate interest, which basically governs the WTO processes, will never let developing countries take any advantage of the WTO. The basic aim of the WTO is to further the interest of the corporations and nation states who are members of the WTO are simply playing at the tunes of these Corporations who (Cargill) have drafted the Agreement on Agriculture and now they demand their shares in the world agriculture market. For us, the Agreement on Agriculture embodies a set of rules aimed at corporate take over of agriculture, trade and domestic markets, the destruction of food sovereignty and food security, the destruction of farmers' livelihoods, and the destruction of the environment.

We do not have any hope in the forthcoming negotiations on AoA at Geneva or at the Ministerial in Hong Kong. We are now convinced that the Agreement on Agriculture is fundamentally wrong and it would not provide any advantage to the third world, its farmers and its agriculture. 

The mass suicides that have started to occur in India after trade liberalization policies were introduced in agriculture are the direct results of the distortions and deceit built into the international trade in agriculture. The Korean Farmer Lee who committed suicide in Cancun had said, “WTO kills farmers”. It is true. It is killing farmers in India too.

Your government, which came into power with farmers support, must assert our unqualified right to impose quantitative restrictions to save our farmers. Farmers’ suicide is a national security emergency and government must negotiate in the forthcoming General Council meeting and the Hong Kong Ministerial keeping farmers suicides at the par. The lives of people come first, not the profits of the global corporations. Democracy comes first, not the manipulated undemocratic rules of a failing agency like WTO.

UPA Government – Of the Corporations, By the Corporations and For the Corporations

Though in the 2004 elections, the UPA government came into power and another coalition of parties came together to rule India. However in real terms no change was made in the de facto rulers of India and how India is ruled. The agenda for corporate globalization is being accelerated by the UPA alliance, similar to one promoted by the NDA “shining India” campaign. Seed corporations like Monsanto are destroying the seed sovereignty of our farmers, locking them in a debt trap, and pushing them to suicide. The government is now allowing MNC’s to freely import seeds. Agribusiness corporations are selling costly inputs, buying cheap commodities, and dumping subsidized products because of WTO’ distorted rules. Water corporations are privatizing and mining our precious rivers ground water and public utilities. The negotiations in Geneva further strengthen MNC’s rule over our resources and our economy.

At the time when India should be reintroducing quantitative restrictions (QRs) because of the agrarian crisis and farmers’ suicides, your Commerce Minister (in August 2004) announced removal of QRs from Seeds, Plants and Roots and 12 other sensitive farm products. Even the new Seed Bill 2004 provides for import of seeds.

During the WTO Ministerial meeting in Cancun, the developing countries started to talk of protection of products vital to food security. QR’s are the only effective means to protect special products. Seed is the first link in our food chain and regulation of seeds and its imports are necessary for our agriculture security, livelihood security & food security.

The existing seed deregulation instituted by World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO) reforms has already created seed monopolies and allowed MNC like Monsanto to sell unregulated and untested seeds to Indian farmers.

Free import of seeds is a declaration of seed war against our farmers and a total giving up by the government of its duty to regulate seed for safety, reliability, adaptability and appropriate prices. While in most countries sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures put a total ban on import of seeds, plants and roots, India is allowing free entry of diseases and health hazards through deregulating seed and plants imports. In the US, plant and seed imports are governed by a terror laws to ensure that seed import do not become a vehicle for bio-terrorism. We don’t have proper infrastructure at our ports to check the imported hazardous seeds and GMOs seeds. 

The deregulation of the input sector, the entry of seed MNC’s and the creation of seed monopolies has already led to increased costs of inputs and the risks of crop failure. In 2002, farmers of Bihar lost Rs. 400 crore due to the failure of Monsanto’s hybrid corn and they were not compensated by Monsanto. Farmers of Andhra Pradesh and other states ran into losses of several crores due to the failure of Bt. Cotton over last three years and states like Andhra Pradesh even banned Monsanto products in the states for none payment of compensation to victim farmers whose Bt cotton has failed, yet Monsanto has paid any compensation to these farmers.

Despite the bad track record of corporations like Monsanto, and the international outcry against the introduction of Genetically Engineered seeds and foods, your government has given commercial permission to 16 varieties of genetically engineered Bt cotton, without assessing the performance of Bt. cotton in last three years and completely relying on Monsanto’s data (which has market interest and has no concern for failure of its seeds). Though all these 16 varieties are introduced by three different Indian seed companies, but all under licence from Monsanto for using its Bt. gene. Hence you have started the monopoly control by seed corporations and control over seed by one giant seed corporation from US. Several independent Indian organisations and NGOs came out with their reports on failure of Bt. cotton and some of them submitted their reports to GEAC showing increased use of pesticides in Bt. cotton, increasing resistance in pests, low yield and problem of contamination and genetic pollution through cross pollination as well as non compliance of biosafety rules and guidelines by the seed companies. The agriculture department of some of the state governments, where Bt. cotton was planted, had also confirmed the failure of Bt. cotton and the report submitted by the government of Andhra Pradesh very clearly established the extremely poor performance of Bt. cotton and even asked for compensation from the companies – Monsanto and Mahyco – to be paid to thousands of victim farmers who lost their Bt cotton crop and are indebted due to heavy investment in Bt. cotton. Despite all these proofs, the GEAC under the Ministry of Environment and Forests gave fresh commercial permission to Bt. cotton not only in southern states but in northern states too.

Seeds Bill, 2004

Another pro-corporation step taken by your government on the name of “WTO Compliance” is the introduction of the proposed Seed Law 2004 which does not offer anything to Indian farmers and instead provide complete control over seeds to the multinational corporations. Indian farming community was taken for a ride with the introduction of the Seed Bill Act 2004 on grounds that the draft Act is needed to guarantee seed quality. However the Seed Act 1966 already performs the function of seed testing and seed certification. There is nothing in the WTO, which provides for compulsory seed registration and this proposed legislation mainly establish MNCs control over our seeds. This is a ‘WTO Plus’ step by your government.

Quite clearly a monopolistic patent regime and corporate monopoly over seeds cannot be established as long as farmers have the alternative of their own zero cost, reliable, time tested high value seeds of their traditional varieties of indigenous agro-biodiversity.

The Seed Bill 2004 has one and only one objective - stopping our farmers from seed saving, seed exchange and seed reproduction. Even the objective said Bill blatantly declares - it is aimed at replacing farmers saved seeds with seeds from private seed industries. The repeated reference to ‘barter’ in the Bill will prevent farmer’s seed exchange, a necessary aspect of maintaining high quality seed supply at the community level. The compulsory registration of seed combined with the power of seed inspectors to enter and search our premises (which now mean our huts and fields), the power to break open any container and any door is tantamount to creating a ‘Seed Police’ to terrorize us for conserving biodiversity and practicing a sovereign self-reliant agriculture. The first time fine for seed exchange and barter of unregistered seed is upto Rs. 25000. While criminalizing our farmers who consume biodiversity and traditional varieties, the draft Seed Act fails to do one thing it should have done, that is to regulate and hold liable seed industry and seed corporations for seed failure and genetic contamination from GMO’s.

In the new Seed Bill farmers can only claim compensation under the Consumer Protection Act. This option is in any way available to farmers and the brutal power of the Central Authority, which acts to prevent farmers from growing own seeds, provides no safety and remedy to our farmers from untested and hazardous seeds MNCs are selling in the Indian market. The 2004 Seed Bill has nothing positive to offer to us but offer a promise of a monopoly to private seed industries, which has already pushed thousands of our farmers to suicide through dependency and debt caused by unreliable, high dependency and non-renewable seeds.

Even today, 70% of the seed is the farmers’ own varieties, which have been saved, exchanged and reproduced freely and have guaranteed our food security. Farmers’ own indigenous varieties are the basis of our ecological and food security. Our ancestors have evolved thousands of varieties of farm tested ecologically adaptable seeds of every crop, which never fails us. These seeds are indigenous farmers varieties of diverse crops – thousands of rices, hundreds of wheats, oilseeds such as linseed, sesame, groundnut, coconut, pulses including gahat, narrangi, rajma, urad, moong, masur, tur, vegetables and fruits. This is the sector being targeted by the draft Seed Act and is designed to “enclose” the free economy of farmers’ seed varieties. Once farmers seed supply is destroyed through compulsory registration by making it illegal to plant unlicensed varieties, farmers are pushed into dependency on corporate monopoly of patented seed.

There are many examples of how Seed Acts in various countries and the introduction of IPRs prevent farmers from engaging in their own seed production. Josef Albrecht, an organic farmer in Germany, was fined by his government because he developed his own ecological varieties of wheat and traded in this uncertified seed. In Scotland, there are a large number of farmers who grow seed potato and sell seed potato to other farmers until 1990s when holders of plant breeders’ rights started to issue notices to potato growers through the British Society of Plant Breeders and made selling of seed potato by farmers to other farmers’ illegal. In protest Scotish farmers started selling non-certified seed directly to English farmers. The seed industry claimed lose of £4 million in seed sales through the direct sale of uncertified seed potato and in February 1995, the British Society for Plant Breeders filed a case against a farmer from Aberdeenshire and he was forced to pay £30,000 as compensation to cover royalties lost to the seed industry by direct farmer-to-farmer exchange. Existing United Kingdom and European Union laws thus prevent farmers from exchanging uncertified seed as well as protected varieties. In the US as well, farmer-to-farmer exchange has been made illegal. Dennis and Becky Winterboer were farmers owning a 500-acre farm in Iowa and since 1987, the Winterboers were deriving a sizeable portion of their income from ‘brown bagging’ sales of their crops to other farmers to use as seed. Asgrow, a commercial seed company now owned by Monsanto, filed suit against the Winterboers on the grounds that its property rights were being violated.

Your government bent on establishing the same monopolistic regime on seeds in India where 70% farmers population are small and marginal and they can not afford buying seeds every year.

Though your government has not yet cleared the patents on GMOs, and the this particular section is still under review by the Mashelker Committee, but we fear that this committee will definitely allow patents on micro-organisms and GMOs since it falls in the corporate agenda of your government. Patents on seeds are a necessary aspect of the corporate deployment of GM seeds and crops. When combined with the ecological risks of genetically engineered seeds like Bt. cotton, seed patents create a context of total control over the seed sector, and hence over our food and agricultural security. Therefore your pro-corporations lobby will not digest that the GMOs seeds are allowed no patent protection in India.

With the introduction of GMOs, genetic pollution is inevitable. Monsanto will use the patents and pollution to claim ownership of crops on farmers’ fields where the Bt. gene has reached it through wind or pollinators. This has been established as precedence in the case of a Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, whose canola field was contaminated by Monsanto’s “Round up Ready Canola,” but instead of Monsanto paying Percy on the basis of the ‘polluter pays principle’, Monsanto demanded $200,000 fine for “theft” of Monsanto’s “intellectual property”. Thousands of U.S. farmers have also been sued for theft of intellectual property of MNCs.

It is often stated that IPRs will not stop traditional farmers using native seeds. However, the Seed Bill 2004 is designed to do just that. What the seeds MNCs cannot have achieved through the IPR laws are now easily possible through the Seeds Bill which prevent our farmers from using their own ‘non-patented’ saved seeds. This leads to Seeds MNCs totalitarianism in agriculture. Seed Corporations will decide what is grown by farmers, what they use as inputs, and when they sell their produce, to whom and at what price. They will also decide what is eaten by consumers, at what price, with what content and how much information is made available to them about the nature of food commodities.

Food Safety and Standards Bill 2005

The UPA government, in order to further the interest of the corporations, has introduced the Food Safety and Standards Bill 2005 as an “Integrated Food Law”. This Bill has been prepared with the intention to be contemporary, comprehensive, and ensure better consumer safety through food safety management systems and settling standards based on science and transparency as also meeting the dynamic requirements of international trade and Indian Food Trade and Industry. Clearly, the law has been designed to lubricate international trade and the expansion of the global agribusiness. Consumer health, nutrition and food culture are not even mentioned as objectives of the integrated food law.

But the integrated food safety bill will lead to the dismantling of the PFA. It is in effect the legalizing of adulteration of our entire food system with toxic chemicals and industrial processing. We need stronger food safety laws, especially in the context of toxics in food and the introduction of GMOs in food crops. The Prevention of Food Adulteration Act needs to be strengthened, not substituted by the proposed law.

However, while food hazards grow, food safety laws are being shaped which deregulate large corporations and over-regulate the small scale self organized economy. Such industrial food safety standards promote large-scale globalised production, and act against local foods. These laws are also the basis of the Sanitary and Phyto Sanitary Agreement of WTO. An example of these inappropriate standards was used to destroy our diverse, decentralize edible oil industry. In August 1998, a new packaging order was introduced for edible oils on grounds of food safety which led to shutting down of millions of small-scale local oil mills and local edible oils pressing units for mustard. Combined with WTO trade rules of removing import restrictions, the laws of false food safety flooded India’s markets with oil from genetically engineered soyabeans.

Our own food standards are cultural, based on indigenous science and community control not industrial “science” and controlled by central government manipulated by Food giants like Cargill, ConAgra, Lever, Nestle, Phillip Morris and Gene Giants like Monsanto. Since different food systems need different levels of management for safety, it is totally inappropriate to lump together all kinds of food – organic, industrial, GMOs into one category by the proposed bill, which treat all food providers as the same. “Food business” means any undertaking, whether for profit or not, and whether public or private, carrying out any of the activities related to any stage of production, processing and distribution of food and includes import, export and sale of food and food service providers.

Our kitchens and dhabas, our cottage and household industry is being put in the same category as Nestle’s Cargills and ConAgra’s massive super industrial processing. Domestic and local consumption, including “not for profit” food provisioning is being put in the same category as imports of hazardous GMOs. This is an obsolete, corrupt crude and coercive system proposed by corporations to destroy 99% of our indigenous food processing so that global agribusiness MNCs which have spread disease and ill health control our entire food economy and destroy millions of livelihoods. It will destroy our food freedom, livelihoods, our food safety, our food diversity. The proposed integrated food safety law will be used to criminalise every tiny dhabawala and street vendor who are not introducing obesity and diabetes, cancer and heart disease in our society. They are providing safe, affordable dal and roti to millions of working people.

Indigenous “Methi Ka Sag and Makki Ki Roti” have no international standards, they need indigenous standards. India must craft her laws for her conditions. One law for all food systems is a law that privileges large-scale industrial commercial establishments and discriminates and criminalizes our small, local, diverse food joints and culture.

Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee Act (APMC ACT)

Another step by your government to promote corporate interests and allow them to control our agriculture marketing is through the changes in the Agriculture Produce Marketing Act (APMC Act). The Union Agriculture Ministry has issued direction to all the states to amend their APMC Act so as to bring private investment and develop, alternative competitive marketing structure, by passing the licensed traders. The state governments are supposed to allocate lands to agencies to set up alternative markets and exempt them from the purview of the APMC Act.

The most significant changes in the marketing law is the removal of regulation of MNC’s for location of purchase, price and volume of agricultural commodities. The old APMC acts prohibited purchase from producer by traders outside the “mandi” or market yard. In the “mandi” or market yard the sale of agriculture produce was only by open auction, commission agents were barred from auction on behalf of the producers, payments had to be made the same day, or a penalty interest of 1% per day for five days was imposed and in case of non-payments, licenses were cancelled. The mandis also provided storage facility to farmers in case of non-sale.

The marketing laws were thus primarily laws for prevention of exploitation of farmers. However, fresh changes in the Marketing Act are designed to remove legal instruments for preventing farmer’s exploitation. In affect, the model Act is an Act to legalize exploitation by removing all regulation on price and volume of purchase. By having many traders, and a ceiling on volume traded, monopolies could not emerge in mandis. The model Act promotes the creation of monopolistic buying by agribusiness. Giant corporations like Cargill, ConAgra and ITC can now set up private markets, not regulated by the market committee.

This is a recipe for destroying local markets, and through market destruction, destroying local production. India produces thousands of crops on millions of farms. Agribusiness trades in a handful of commodities. Their monopoly on our markets implies destruction of diversity and displacement of small producers and traders.

The Model Act also puts a complete ban on civil suits by the aggrieved party/farmers. It clearly says that no court can take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act or any rule or any bye-laws made there under except on the complaint made by the collector or chairman, vice chairman, chief executive officer of the market committee or of any person duly authorized by the market committee in this behalf. In other words, the farmers are disenfranchised of all legal, civil rights. This is corporate dictatorship, implemented by a corporate state. This spells the end of democracy. Several states have already amended their APMC Act and farmers in those states are facing acute problems because the buying agencies are not implementing the MSP and farmers are being forced to sell their produce are a cheap price which does not even cover their cost of production. This will lead to more suicides since the farm price are already very low in India due to excessive subsidized dumping of agriculture produce from developed world.

Contract Farming 

The new APMC Act has contract farming built into its structure. The Model Contract Farming Agreement refers to corporations as “contract farming sponsor”. Contract oblige farmers to produce, but do not oblige corporations to buy. In case of a dispute, farmers cannot seek justice from courts.

Several State governments, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, are actively promoting contract farming, changing laws to enable and support it, and providing companies interested in it with a variety of incentives, including lifting of land ceilings, subsidies and tax rebates.  Other State governments, including West Bengal, are under pressure to change their policy towards contract farming.

Dismantling Minimum Support Price System

Under the pressure from the World Bank and IMF to curtail subsidies, your government is thinking on the lines of stopping the minimum support price mechanisms. The minimum support price (MSP) is an imperative for farmers’ income security. MSP cannot be done away with. It is the equivalent of minimum wages in non-agricultural sectors. Just as no just society can allow the super exploitation through low wages, no society can allow the super exploitation of farmers through low and even negative return to farming.

The National Agriculture Policy

The National Agriculture Policy (NAP) is being proposed at a time when the nation is facing a major food and agriculture crisis. There are disturbing signs of a declining trend in foodgrains productivity, fast emerging threats to sustainability of agriculture, depleting underground water resources, growing indebtedness in farming, and growing number of farmers' suicides. For nearly a decade, agricultural production had stagnated in the country. The spectacular growth recorded in the Post-Green Revolution years in Punjab and Haryana have receded into history.

Despite all this, the NAP is an abject surrender to the WTO-sponsored strategy of integration of Indian agriculture with the global market. It speaks of everything, ranging from achieving a high rate of growth, conservation of biodiversity, equity across regions and among farmers, watershed development, environmental protection, harnessing of traditional knowledge, regionalization of agricultural research, research and extension linkages, encouraging research and breeding of new varieties in the private sector through protection of plant varieties, technology diffusion, liberalization of domestic market, integration of agricultural trade in the global system, tenancy reforms, development of lease markets, enabling lease of land for agribusiness, contract farming, accelerating the growth of agri-business, creating employment in rural areas, women’s rights in land, promotion of cooperative form of enterprise, price support, crop insurance to use of information technology, and many other matters. The policy in fact, however, is geared towards the destruction of the small farmer, who is the key to India's food security.

The removal of subsidies and the push towards contract farming has led to a drastic decline in food production. The cultivation of staple food is being replaced by cash crops - tomatoes in place of wheat, durum wheat (for bakery purposes) is replacing wheat as a staple diet in Punjab and Haryana, flowers in place of rice and so on. With Agriculture Minister keen to legalize the process of corporatization of agriculture, all this is sure to strike a deathblow to Indian agriculture.

The decline in food production is compounded by the unregulated import of cheap, subsidized food into the country, as well as the refusal of the government to maintain MSP, forcing farmers to stop producing food and shift to export crops. The decline in food production, together with policies that raise the price of food, as well as the dismantling of the PDS system and the FCI, has created artificially high food stocks that are then exported, as they cannot be stored without rotting. While our people are dying of acute hunger, our “surplus” food stocks are exported at the BPL rate and given to the MNCS like Cargill.

In order to promote corporatization of agriculture, the policy says that, “the private sector participation will be provided through contract farming and land ceiling arrangements”. This clearly means undoing of the land reforms. This is fraught with dangerous consequences for the 70% of landholders who are small and marginal farmers. They would be reduced to the status of landless labourers, with the difference that they would be left only with a piece of paper issued to them in lieu of the lease by the big corporate farming entity. It will reduce Indian farmers to bonded labour, robbing them of their autonomy and sovereignty. It will also threaten the food security of the country.

The NAP also promotes the use of biotechnology for "evolving plants which consume less water, are drought resistant, pest resistant, contain more nutrition, give higher yields and are environmentally safe". However, applications such as less water consumption and drought resistance have not yet been realized through genetic engineering, though our farmers' varieties offer a tremendous choice for drought resistant, flood resistant, saline resistant and frost resistant varieties.

What you can do for the farmers?

To stop farmers’ suicides you will need to go beyond compensation to victims’ family. You will need to address the debt creating production packages farmers are being snared into. Your government will need to go beyond “reforms with a human face” and work for the Indian farmers with a human heart and shape economic policy with the farmer’s livelihoods and well being at its center and not for corporation. For rural areas we need farmer oriented reform not corporate driven reform. We need farmer owned, farmer run systems to generate employment and retain added value in rural households and not corporate owned systems which would create rural indebtedness because it is based on unfair terms of trade. The people oriented reforms in agriculture that are needed to get farmers out of the debt and suicide trap is to address the roots of the debt crisis which is high costs of production and unfair prices in the market.

In an interview, you were asked whether the rich countries set the rules of the W.T.O and whether it will be always to the disadvantage of the emerging countries like India. Your reply was, “The international economic game is a power game and those who are strong are always able to lay down the laws of the game.  As I see it, India is not strong enough to rewrite the rules of the world game in its own image. But there are opportunities, and other countries of East Asia have taken advantage of those opportunities of the trading system, which has minus points also”.  You being the captain of Indian team has already conceded a walkover by holding  ‘India is not strong enough’ to resist the present rules of the game. When you have candidly conceded the fact that India does not have any say in the a WTO negotiations and can not change the rule of the game in which our agriculture is getting perished, you may also start a process for walking out of the WTO because when we can not make our voice heard in that forum, there is no need to be present and get perished. We believe that you would accept our request to start a process for getting at least ‘Agriculture out of WTO’ or otherwise “WTO out of Agriculture”. If you cannot do that, you must take some immediate measures which can protect our agriculture from the onslaught of the WTO policies and corporate control. To show the world that India is a powerful country and is capable enough to protect the interest of its farmers, you must follows the following principles in making agriculture policies:

1.  Agriculture in India be governed by the rights and duties enshrined in our Constitution, not by the unjust trade rules of the W.T.O governed by corporations. Agriculture is first and foremost a way of life and source of livelihoods for 75% people in India. It cannot be reduced to a market controlled by global MNCs. We must reclaim our food sovereignty. This should be the main thrust of India's position at the W.T.O. negotiations as well as of the National Agriculture Policy. To protect farmers lives and livelihoods, the government must reinstate QRs, introduce high tariffs to off set dumping of subsidised artificially cheap commodities on domestic markets, and seek exception to W.T.O's market access rules. We must shift from “trade first” to “food first” policy, from ‘MNC first’ to ‘farmer first’ rules. Your government should stop working for the corporations, and should look into the needs of the farmers and not of the corporations.

2. Agriculture is a State subject under the Constitution. The Center should not usurp rights which constitutionally belong to the State. Farmers’ well being depends on fiscal autonomy of States which is a constitutional guarantee. An interference in this autonomy of the States is at the root of the agrarian crisis.

3. Farmers must receive fair and just prices and incomes for the vital work they perform for society in food production. Fair prices require a reintroduction of QRs, given the high levels of subsidies rich countries give for dumping agricultural products. Fair prices also require a minimum purchase price (MPP) independent of whether the buyer is the government, private traders or global MNCs. Price regulation is a duty of the government. Just prices are a fundamental right of farmers. The government should ensure procurement of all agricultural produce for which Minimum Support Price (MSP) has been announced. The Amendments in Agricultural Marketing Act which allows the establishment of monopoly of MNCs over agriculture markets must be repealed

4. MNCs should not be allowed to take over the Indian seed supply system. Farmers’ supply and public sector supply of seed must be strengthened. The Seed Bill 2004 must be scrapped and not at all brought to the Parliament for any discussion. It should be thrown in the dustbin forever. MNCs must be regulated and help liable for seed failure. Seed sovereignty requires a public supply of seed and defense of our seed security.

5. The still pending amendment in the Patent (Third Amendment) Act regarding the microorganisms and GMOs shall never allow patenting of micro-organisms, cells, GMOs because it will bring doom for the Indian farmers and finish of Indian biodiversity and farmers innovation. The Patent Act of 1970 which excludes life forms and agriculture from patentability needs to be reinstated, by repealing the Second and Third Amendments.

6. Agriculture is the primary livelihood of India's people. Livelihood security should be the first and highest objective of the National Agriculture Policy. There must not be any neglect of the livelihood security of farmers and the promotion of agribusiness interests in the NAP. Protecting small farmers' livelihoods must be ensured by the National Agricultural Policy. Most Indians, especially women, children, tribals and landless workers are facing severe food insecurity and nutritional deficiency. Providing nutritious, safe, diverse and culturally appropriate food to every citizen must be another priority of Agriculture Policy.

7. Ecological Security and Biosafety must be the ensured by prohibition of genetically engineered crops from entry into the Indian farms and markets, since these proprietary GM seeds are undermining biosafety and ecological security.

Our Demands:

• Agriculture and food should be kept out of WTO. The import duties on all agricultural products must be increased to stop the flow of subsidized imports. National food sovereignty be protected and food security be seen as National Security.
• Quantitative Restrictions (QR’s) be reinstated to prevent dumping by corporations of artificially cheep and subsidised products, destroying farmers’ livelihoods and the nations’ food security.
• To ensure that farmers get fair prices, a minimum procurement price must be set for all products, and no procurement or import should be allowed below that price. Tariffs and anti dumping measures must be used to ensure that artificially cheap subsidized commodities are not dumped on the Indian market leading to loss of farmers’ incomes.
• The price of agricultural produce must be fixed before the sowing season and scientific price must be guaranteed by the government. MSP be retained to regulate the market prices, both for Government procurement and private trade.
• Farmers should be allowed to sell their produce in all types of markets without payment of tolls.
• The cooperative milk societies should procure all the milk produced by the farmers which is this is the only source of cash for peasants.
• Loan obtained by farmers from formal and informal financial institutions must be waived off. The government should prohibit alienation of land, livestock, agricultural equipment and homes of farmers on account of debt traps as was done in Punjab through the Land Alienation Act during colonial times.
• The genetically engineered seeds and foods must be completely banned in India and no import of GMOs seeds, plants and foods will be allowed.
• The Indian government fix the accountability of the companies for huge losses incurred by Bt. cotton farmers so far. The representatives of all national farmer unions should be invited in all decision-making processes of the GEAC under the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
• The government policy of privatization and commercialization of water resources and handling over management of water supply to the MNCS must be stopped.
• With the increasing water crisis, the government should look for alternative water sources and ecologically viable farming techniques to make efficient use of water in agriculture.
• The farmers should be provided with 24 hrs electricity at a subsidized rate.
• Farmers’ leaders must have representation in the Agricultural Pricing Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture and agriculture price must be fixed on the basis of the cost of production and the cost of living.
• All the cases filed against the farmers involved in civil disobedience agitations all over India should be withdrawn by the center and the state governments.
• Agriculture based village industries should be promoted by the government to guarantee employment to the rural youth to discourage migrations from our villages.
• The ecological farming technologies i.e. organic farming, should be encouraged by the government which will lead to decline in cost of production and improve soil health, productivity and protect farmers from toxics.
• The government change its exclusive focus on corporate agriculture and instead focus its policies on farmer centered and earth entered low lost high output biodiverse organic farming.
• The government should withdraw all perverse incentives to agro-chemical industry and chemical agriculture and put strong disincentives to the use of agrochemicals.
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