Bad science joins paid science

By Devinder Sharma
27 Sep 2010

Entire India, more so its young scientists and students, is left embarrassed and ashamed after expose of ‘copy and paste’ job done by the heads of India’s top science academies to push GM food into India. While these academy heads continue to cling to their posts despite being exposed of disgraceful deeds, the incident only confirms the widespread corruption and incompetence in India’s academic and research institutions.

Citizens of India are vehemently opposed to GM food

I still can't overcome my disbelief. Such 'distinguished' scientific bodies, and such a shoddy report. I have always said there is good science, and there is bad science but this report transgresses all earlier known brackets, and I have no hesitation in saying that the Inter-Academy Report on GM crops (see the pdf copy of the report here: http://bit.ly/cQbyCI ) does not even qualify to be put in the category of bad science.

It is Gutter Science.
The Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops -- prepared by the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of Medical Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences -- and submitted in September 2010 to the Ministry of Environment & Forests, is no better than the introductory write-ups any graduate student of biotechnology would come out with. In fact, I have a collection of a large number of papers/analyses written by graduate and post-graduate students who seek my comments/views that I would rate much higher than this Inter-Academy report.
The Inter-Academy Report on GM Crops is in fact a disgrace to Indian science. That Indian science was on a downhill path was never in question, but that it had already slipped into a cesspool is a revelation. I wish the presidents of the six Indian Academies had at least read the 19-page report prepared by the Minister for Environment & Forests Jairam Ramesh (and which is available on the website of the ministry) at the time of announcing the moratorium on Bt brinjal early this year, and they would have known what academic excellence means.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh had imposed a moratorium on Bt brinjal’s release until there is widespread scientific consensus on its environmental and biosafety aspects. The Inter-Academy report fails to answer any of the concerns/questions that Jairam Ramesh had raised in his paper.

The Inter-Academy report therefore is not a scientific inquiry, but a cheap public relation exercise on behalf of the GM industry. This is a scientific form of corruption, and has to be condemned in as strong words as possible.

You have probably read in newspapers how the key parts of the report -- which supports genetically modified (GM) Bt brinjal’s commercial release -- have been plagiarized from a biotechnology department newsletter. According to a news report titled 'Experts Admit GM brinjal Report Faulty' in The Telegraph (Sept 27, 2010): "Six Indian science academies had earlier this week approved the limited release of GM brinjal for cultivation in a joint report that contained 60 lines of plagiarised text, a near verbatim reproduction of an article in a biotechnology advocacy newsletter which itself had lines extracted from an industry-supported publication.
"This is unfortunate — we are devastated. This should not have happened,” said M. Vijayan, the president of the Indian National Science Academy, and a senior faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

Another press report ‘Academies copied to push for Bt brinjal’ on India Today website says: “India's top science academies have done the unthinkable. They have copied and quoted extensively from an industry lobby report to give a clean chit to the controversial genetically modified (GM) brinjal. Key portions and data in the much touted Inter-Academy Report on Genetically Modified Crops have been lifted straight from a report of a lobbying group funded by seed companies, including Monsanto and Mahyco.”
“.. it turns out that the academies have relied heavily on data generated by US based GM lobby International Service for the Acquisition of Agri- biotech Applications (ISAAA). They have recommended the commercial release of Bt brinjal and the lifting of the moratorium imposed on it by Ramesh. Earlier, science and technology minister Prithviraj Chavan had plagiarised from reports by the same ISAAA in a letter to cabinet colleague A. Ramadoss while defending Bt brinjal.

“…The similarities in the ISAAA report and the Inter-Academy report go on without anyone getting a hint about the source of the data. No references or citations have been given, as is normal with any scientific document.”
[See the news reports at http://bit.ly/9K6D2l and http://bit.ly/adBJo6 ]

Who will feed Uttar Pradesh?

By Devinder Sharma
08 Sep 2010

State governments are competing with each other to grab fertile lands of farmers and transfer these to industry. But with increasing population and decreasing arable land, feeding the people will become a huge challenge for states like Uttar Pradesh in the years to come.

Already marginalised and ignored by the policy makers, Indian farmers
resent land grab by government and industry

India is witnessing a thousand mutinies. Pitched battles are being fought across the country by poor farmers, who fear further marginalisation when their land is literally grabbed by the government and the industry. From Mangalore in Karnataka to Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, from Singur in West Bengal to Mansa in Punjab, the rural countryside is literally on a boil. Large chunks of prime agricultural land are being forcibly diverted for non-agricultural purposes.

While the continuing struggle against land acquisition for instance by farmers in Aligarh, which took a violent turn and became a political ploy, is being projected by media as an agitation by farmers for higher compensation, the reality is that a majority of the farmers do not want to dispense with their ancestral land. They are being forced to do so. The most critical, but until now ignored, aspect of this land grab is that it has serious implications for food security.

Let us take the case of Uttar Pradesh. The state has the largest population in the country, and is also the biggest producer of foodgrains. Western parts of Uttar Pradesh, comprising the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains, have been considered part of the green revolution belt. In addition to 4.10 crore tonnes of foodgrains, it produces 1.30 crore tonnes of sugarcane and 1.05 crore tonnes of potato.
Uttar Pradesh produces more foodgrains than Punjab but because of its huge population, it is hardly left with any surplus. What is however remarkable is that Uttar Pradesh has been at least feeding its own population.

This situation is bound to change soon if the government continues with its land conversion policies. The proposed eight Expressways and the townships planned along the route, along with land being gobbled by other industrial, real estate and investment projects are likely to eat away more than 23,000 villages. Although Mayawati government has dropped the townships along the Yamuna expressway, but the company that is investing in real estate claims that as per their pact with the State government, they have to be given land in an alternative location.

Former Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh has in a statement said that one-third of total cultivable land of Uttar Pradesh will be eventually acquired.

This means that out of the total area of 1.98 crore hectares under foodgrain crops in Uttar Pradesh, one-third or roughly 66 lakh hectares will be shifted from agriculture to non-agriculture activity. Much of the fertile and productive lands of Western Uttar Pradesh will therefore disappear, to be replaced by concrete jungles. In addition to wheat and rice, sugarcane and potato would be the other two major crops whose production will be negatively impacted.

As per rough estimates, 66 lakh hectares that would be taken out of farming would mean a production loss of 140 lakh tonnes of foodgrains. In other words, Uttar Pradesh will be faced with a terrible food crisis in the years to come, the seeds for which are being sown now. Add to this the anticipated shortfall in potato and sugarcane production, since the area under these two crops will also go down drastically, the road ahead for Uttar Pradesh is not only dark but laced with social unrest.

Already lagging behind most other states in socio-economic development, Uttar Pradesh will surely see surge in hunger, malnutrition and under-nourishment. We can only imagine the socio-political fallout of the misadventure that the government is attempting with such a massive takeover of fertile land.

What is not being realised is that Uttar Pradesh alone will send all the estimates of the proposed National Food Security Act go topsy-turvy. At present, as per the buffer norms, the government keeps between 200 lakh tonnes to 240 lakh tonnes for distribution across the country through the Public Distribution System (PDS). In the last few years however the average foodgrain stocks with the government have been in the range of 450 to 500 lakh tonnes.

Even with such huge grain reserves, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has expressed his inability to provide 35 kg of grain per month to every eligible family. Imagine, what will happen when Uttar Pradesh alone will put an additional demand of 140 lakh tonnes. Who will then feed Uttar Pradesh?

Policy makers say that with rapid industrialisation the average incomes will go up as a result of which people will have the money to buy food from the open market and also make for nutritious choices. But the bigger question is where will the addition quantity of food come from? Already, Punjab and Haryana, comprising the food bowl, are on fast track mode to acquire farm lands. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhatisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab are building up ‘land banks’ for the industry and Rajasthan has allowed the industry to buy land directly from farmers setting aside the ceiling limit.

Internationally, the food situation is worsening ever since the 2008 food crisis when 37 countries were faced with food riots. Even now, food prices globally are on an upswing. As Russia extends the wheat export ban till the next year's wheat harvest sending global prices on a hike, deadly food riots were witnessed last week in Mozambique killing at last seven people. According to news reports, anger is building up in Pakistan, Egypt and Serbia over rising prices.

Knowing that the world can witness a repeat of 2008 food crisis that resulted in food riots in 37 countries, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has called for a special meeting to discuss the implications.

Extended drought and resulting wildfires have caused a 20 per cent drop in wheat harvest in Russia sending the global wheat prices on a spiral. Wheat futures obviously would take advantage, and according to Financial Times wheat prices have gone up by 70 per cent since January. India may therefore find it difficult to purchase food from the global market if it thinks it can bank upon the international markets to bail it out. This is primarily the reason why several countries, mainly China and the countries of the oil rich Middle East are buying lands in Africa, Lain America and Asia to grow food to be shipped back home for domestic consumers.

Gone are the days when a worried Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, while addressing the nation on Aug 15, 1955 from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi said: "It is very humiliating for any country to import food. So everything else can wait, but not agriculture." That was in 1955. Fifty-five years later, in 2010, UPA-II thinks that food security needs of the nation can be addressed by importing food. Land must be acquired for the industry, because the industrial sector alone will be the vehicle for higher growth. There can be nothing more dangerous than this flawed approach.

Weather aberrations may exacerbate hunger

By Devinder Sharma
20 Aug 2010

The devastation wrought by aberrant weather conditions in several parts of the world has posed a larger question about the implications climate change has for food security of a nation.

Food self-sufficiency becomes critical during a natural calamity (photo
courtesy: Washington Post)
Something terrible is happening to the weather. And it is happening right across our home. From the cold desert of Ladakh to the plains of Bihar and Jharkhand, extreme weather conditions have played havoc. In neighbouring Pakistan, unprecedented floods, including in the arid region of Sindh, have hit more than 14 million people. Latest estimates point to 4 million people rendered homeless.

For some strange reasons, rainfall received due to cloudburst in Leh on a single day was higher than the highest in Cherrapunji. Normally, Leh has been known to receive precipitation in the form of snow only. Although rains had appeared in the Ladakh cold desert for some years now, but such intense downpour defies scientific explanation. In Pakistan, what caused the floods was also a massive downpour, more than what it normally receives in a month.

If you think such weather fluctuations are only happening in India and Pakistan, you are mistaken. Severe drought and wildfires have been raging in Russia for almost a month now. A dense layer of dark cloud hangs over much of Russia. Not only in north-eastern India, parts of Africa and eastern United States are also reeling under a severe drought.

Seemingly disconnected, these extreme weather conditions are being increasingly linked to global warming. While the official machinery grapples to ascertain the extent of damage, scientists are now trying to ascertain the causal reasons. Many believe that such drastic weather aberrations are because of global warming, but the linkages are still not that clearly defined.

Whatever be the reasons, the devastation wrought by aberrant weather conditions in several parts of the world has posed a bigger question about the implications it has for food security. Already, Russia and parts of Africa have lost wheat crop in millions of acres. In view of the loss in harvest, Russia has already banned wheat export. Pakistan is also contemplating food imports to tide over the shortages emanating from the deluge.

In the past too, Australia and Canada had low wheat harvests necessitating large cuts in grain exports. Again, wheat harvest in both these countries had been impacted by distortions in the usual climate pattern thereby pushing global food prices. This only goes to show how precarious and at the same time crucial is for every country to maintain food self-sufficiency.

As has been witnessed earlier in 2007-08, when food prices shot up globally, resulting in food riots in 37 countries, even for countries which had foreign exchange reserves to fall back upon there was no surplus food available in the global markets. While this has necessitated the scramble to scout for fertile land in other countries for crop cultivation and shipping the food back, domestic economic policies are being designed to drive out farmers from agriculture. I don’t understand the logic of farmland grab in foreign countries when agriculture back home is sacrificed for the sake of industry.

Unmindful of the growing threat to food security from resulting global warming, India too is busy acquiring good fertile lands for industrial purposes, real estate and infrastructure. In Uttar Pradesh, for instance, 26,000 villages will disappear when all expressway projects are completed. Since 1980, more than 9.8 lakh hectares of tribal land in the country has been diverted for industrial projects. In addition, over 1.5 lakh hectares of land is to be acquired only for Special Economic Zones.

More @ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1342

After much hype, Jatropha bubble bursts

By Devinder Sharma
03 Aug 2010

Projected as the crop of the future, Jatropha was pushed by the industry and the governments with equal force. However, much to the disappointment of the farmers and misery to the poor and hungry, the alternative fuel crop has failed to fulfil the expectations of the world.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam had extolled its virtues as a bio-fuel crop. Planning Commission had made futuristic projections, and several agricultural universities had come out with package-of-practices for its production in wastelands. Some State governments had even set up separate bio-fuel commissions to promote the crop. It was considered to be a dream crop for farmers as well for replacing petrol.
The dream has however gone bust.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has in a special report categorically debunked the claims, and has warned against the hype and half-truths around jatropha, the oil seed plant touted as a major potential source of bio-fuels. “Although there have been increasing investments and policy decisions concerning the use of jatropha as an oil crop, they have been based on little evidence-based information,” the report said.

The dream was oiled on hype, and of course business interests. The Planning Commission triggered it, and like much of what it does, it actually relied on industrial projections without ascertaining whether bio-fuels could actually be produced on a scale to make any significant contribution to the country's ever growing fuel needs.

In April 2003, the Planning Commission had initiated a proposal calling for a major multi-dimensional programme seeking to replace 20 per cent of country's diesel requirement. In March 2004, the first instalment of Rs 800-crore for the National Programme on Jatropha was released to ‘support cultivation of jatropha in 200,000 hectares’. Under the programme, a total allocation of Rs 1500-crore to cover 400,000 hectares was envisaged for the next five years.

A total of 13 million hectares had to be brought under jatropha plantations by 2013.
European companies had meanwhile taken millions of acres of land out of food production in Africa, Central America and Asia to grow bio-fuels for transport. According to a report by Action Aid, the land diversion from food to fuel by EU companies alone could have been responsible for 100 million more hungry people, increased prices and landlessness. To meet the 10 per cent target envisaged by EU, the total land area directly required to grow industrial bio-fuels in developing countries could reach 17.5 m hectares, over half the size of Italy.

Interestingly, the entire hype was created on the basis of industrial claims. The industries were more interested in land grab, as is now becoming evident. In India, lakhs of acres of land has already been purchased by private companies at almost throwaway prices. Companies like D1 Oils, the London-listed bio-fuels company, which has planted about 257,000 hectares of jatropha, mainly in India, moved in early.
Newspaper reports say that farmers feel they have been cheated. This is what The Independent (Feb 15, 2010) wrote: “In India, forecasted annual yields of three to five tonnes of seeds per hectare have been scaled back to 1.8 to two tonnes. It quoted Raju Sona, a farmer in north-east India who gave up land that usually produces vegetables to grow jatropha. “No one will buy jatropha. People said if you have a plantation then surely you have a good market. But we didn't see such a market. I threw the seeds away.”

The FAO punctures the argument that growing jatropha utilizes marginal lands effectively. The level of economic returns needed to secure private sector investment “may not be attainable on degraded land” considering better gross margins which can be gained on sugarcane and oil palm plantations. It was not as if this was not known. But governments all over, including India, were simply influenced by private companies and the consultancy firms.

To know about the potential of jatropha plants as bio-fuel, I had travelled sometimes back to the Directorate of Oilseeds Research in Hyderabad, a premier research centre of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. Talking to scientists, what I learnt was simply shocking. For many years, they did research on the potential of jatropha, but had abandoned the research project few years ago. The conclusion: it was not a plant suitable for India.

And yet, the Planning Commission launched a kind of a national mission on jatropha. Since the dream has failed, as is evident, shouldn't the Planning Commission be held accountable? After all, it is the tax-payers money that is being squandered, and someone should be held accountable. And what about large tracts of land that the State Governments had transferred to the private companies at a throwaway price? Isn't that another scandal? Shouldn’t that land be taken back?

more@ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1330

Democratic rights under attack

By Devinder Sharma
06 Jul 2010


The schizophrenia displayed by industry organisations over nation wide protests against price rise indicates their rising intolerance for people's movements. If the suffering people are not even allowed to raise their voice what options they will have other than taking recourse to violence?

It was expected. As people observed a successful nation wide Bandh against rising prices of essential items, the industry and its mouthpieces went into a tizzy. The Economic Times shrieks: "Bharat is left badly bruised as age-old bandh politics over fuel price hike hits industrial activity and disrupts normal life." Its sister publication The Times of India is a little restrained when it says: "Opposition parties on Monday joined forces to enforce a countrywide strike against rising prices, in an effective protest that marked the return of a hot-button political issue and is being seen as a wake-up call for the UPA regime."

The opposition parties had given a call for a nationwide protest in the form of a 'Bharat Bandh' against high inflation and a sharp increase in fuel prices. The Bandh as a newspaper headline says: put India on hold.

All through on Monday, most of the TV channels went on chanting the Corporate mantra: "Monday's Bharat bandh, which disrupted life, stopped work, created loss and damaged property, not so much articulated democratic rights as abused them." All of them quoted imaginary figures of collateral damage that the three industry lobbying groups put up. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimated a loss of Rs 3,000 crore; the Assocham raised it to Rs 10,000 crore; and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) put both the figures together and came out with a magical estimate of Rs 13,000 crore.

If a day's protest has cost the country Rs 13,000 crore, industry lobbyists should demand making it compulsory to work for seven days a week. Why should we have a five-day week? In fact, FIICI should even consider seeking an extension in work hours. If we believe such bogus industry claims for a day of protests, the amount nation loses every year on account of a 5 day week should be phenomenal!

Nevertheless, the media's reaction is a reflection of what India Inc thinks. And India Inc is willing to go to any absurd length to defend the decisions of the incumbent UPA government, which actually is a government of the industry, by the industry and for the industry. So let us not unnecessarily worry about what the media says or be carried away by the 'pro-people' cliches on TV by our impotent netas.
During the day, I was asked by a TV channel whether bandh is the right form of protest. My response was that there are only two ways of expressing your anger and protesting against the high-handedness of the government: using the democratic form of protest or by picking up the gun like the naxals have done in 230 districts of the country.

The other argument against bandh is that it is the people who bear the brunt of such protests. But what about the sufferings of people who have been reeling under the stupendous rise in prices for over a year now? They have been bearing the brunt silently. How long do you want the poor to go to bed hungry unable to buy two square meals a day? What about those millions who cannot afford to buy their daily quota of dal and chapati?

Anyway, the media decries bandh. The media also slams the opposition for disrupting the proceeding in Parliament if ever the Opposition parties come together on popular issues. What is the choice then? Should the people be left to adopt militant means? Or the media expects people to write letters to the editor? Even that space has disappeared in most newspapers, with hardly few inches of space left for public feedback.

It is not only the newspapers which have drastically curtailed space for public opinion, increasing privatisation is actually taking away the right of expression. Let me illustrate this. Some years back, I was in Manila to attend a conference. In the afternoon, we heard slogans outside the hotel. There were groups of farmers and activists who were protesting against the corporatisation of agriculture. Within minutes the police arrived telling the protesters that they can't demonstrate inside the hotel's boundary walls.

The protesters moved to the road outside. Again, they were told that the road was also a private property. They then went back to the small park in front of the hotel. They were then told that the park was also a private property.

In reality, India Inc is trying to take away all democratic spaces. They do not want any finger to be raised at the usurping of resources that the business and industry is engaged in. The economic loot that goes on with the support of the government is something they don't want to stop. Obviously the share prices go up, and that keeps the middle class happy. Those who suffer are not allowed to raise their voice. With the dominant media on their side, Corporates are trying to muffle all democratic options and voices. In other words, it is actually an assault on the fundamental right of expression.

We are therefore at a very crucial stage in history. If we let the debate over democratic norms be defined by the Corporates and their agents (and I am including the economists in this list), it is time to say goodbye to democracy.

more interesting reads@ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1307

A crime that goes unpunished for 25 years

By Devinder Sharma
25 Jun 2010

Ignored and forgotten by successive governments, over 200,000 Narmada Dam oustees have been waiting for a rehabilitation package for almost a quarter of a century.

For 25 years now, they have struggled to get justice. In a peaceful and democratic manner, over 200,000 people displaced from the rising waters of the Narmada dams, have waited endlessly for a rehabilitation package, which is their legitimate right. But, justice has been denied to them.

On July 24, about 200 displaced people were present in the Gandhi Bhawan, in the heart of Bhopal city, to listen to the conclusions and recommendations of the three-member Independent People's Tribunal on displacements in the Narmada valley. The People's Tribunal was chaired by Justice (Retd.) A P Shah, former chief justice of the Delhi and Madras High Courts, and I had the privilege and honour of being part of the panel. We had travelled through some of the affected areas in the Narmada valley in the first week of the June, and then spent some days putting it all together in the form of this report.

Twenty five years after the work for a series of dams on the mighty Narmada began, the displaced people, a majority of them being adivasis, have been treated worse than cattle by successive governments. Looking at their plight, and their lost years, and knowing that they will continue to be deprived of justice, I wonder why these people have not picked up arms? At a time when the UPA government is asking the naxalites in neighbouring Chhatisgarh State to give up arms and come to the negotiating table, I fail to understand why the government is not talking to those who never picked up the gun?

I bow my head before these poor and hapless tribals for teaching us the true meaning of ahimsa. And yet, the nation has failed them. Every political party is responsible for this crime, a crime against humanity. Every bureaucrat who has been posted with the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA), Narmada Control Authority (NCA) and the Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) is guilty. Ministry for Environment & Forests, Ministry for Water Resources and Planning Commission have been willing partners to the crime.

I am saddened by what I saw, by what I heard. I can never forget the pain in the eyes of the women whom I met, the tears all dried up in the long drawn struggle for the past quarter of a century. We as a nation are responsible for inflicting these displaced people with so much of scorn and indifference that deep down in their hearts they know their struggle to gain independence from British rule has not yielded results.

And yet they have not given up on hope.

Considering their plight, the People's Tribunal in its report noted:

1. It is clearly established that the Governments of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat have violated the rights to life, livelihood and rehabilitation of thousands of oustees of the Sardar Sarovar Project, guaranteed by the Constitution and re-affirmed by numerous international conventions ratified by India by causing illegal and unjustifiable displacement of adivasis, and other farmers.
2. We wish to state at the very outset that our Tribunal was shocked to note as to how the NCA and the NVDA have stated that there are 'zero families' who are to be rehabilitated, when in fact, in every village, hundreds of people not only welcomed us, but demonstrated to us the full community life, with the houses in various mohullas, schools, panchayat, bhawans, temples, masjids, agricultural fields, trees etc and narrated not just their individual complaints but the overall situation and problems with adequate analysis.
3. The Supreme Court in its judgement of Mar 15, 2005, whereby it upheld the Narmada Award 1979 and reiterated that land based rehabilitation of project affected persons (PAF) along with provisions of house sites with requisite amenities must be completed one year before submergence. The judgement admitted the entitlements of minimum of 2 hectares of cultivable, irrigable and suitable agricultural land to all major sons and unmarried daughters of landholder PAFs.
4. As a consequence of the progressive Rehabilitation Policy, as a part of the Narmada Tribunal 1979 and protracted struggle by the people, about 10,500 adivasis families have been given land in lieu of the land submerged or acquired for the project in Maharashtra and Gujarat, but to this date not a single family has received acceptable agricultural land in Madhya Pradesh.
5. Madhya Pradesh government has expressed its inability to provide 'land for land' saying it has no surplus land for rehabilitation, and nor can it buy land for the oustees since the land prices have gone up in the recent past. But it expects the oustees to purchase suitable land with the compensation package being provided under 'Special Rehabilitation Grant' that replaces land allocation with a cash package. However, in case of Madhya Pradesh, the Writers and Publishers Limited, Indore, nationally the 7th largest multi product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in terms of area, is slated to come up on 4,050 hectares of land and has already received the "in principle" approval. The total land that this one single SEZ occupies is approximately equal to the land required to rehabilitate most of the SSP oustees.
6. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan while addressing the Pravasi Bhartiya Sammelan in New Delhi, Jan 2010, had invited the NRIs with open arms to set up industrial units. "Madhya Pradesh has no law and order problem, land is available in plenty, and clearances for setting up industrial units can be achieved very fast."

As we can see, there is no limitation of land for industries and SEZ, but no intention of providing land to the oustees, even going to the extent of defying the Supreme Court orders. As an oustee asked us at the Public Hearing at Badwani on June 3: "Does the Supreme Court apply its contempt laws on the State governments also? Or is it only meant for lesser mortals like us?"

Assured procurement can boost pulses production

By Devinder Sharma
15 Jun 2010

Instead of encouraging Indian farmers to grow pulses by ensuring purchase by government agencies at attractive prices, suggestions are put forth to outsource production to other countries without comprehending socio-economic and political implications.

Production of pulses has gone down due to unfavourable
agri policies (photo: srefoodblog)

Every time you want to cook dal you have to think twice. There was a time when dal-roti was the common man's food. With prices hitting the roof, dal has disappeared from the poor man's platter.
For over 40 years now, dal production continues to stagnate. Production remains in the bracket of 140 to 160 lakh tonnes a year. To meet the gap in demand and supply, India imports roughly 30 to 40 lakh tonnes of pulses from Myanmar, Canada and Australia.
While you are wondering as to why India cannot produce 30 to 40 lakh tonnes more pulses every year, a Working Group of Chief Ministers has suggested that Indian companies be encouraged to buy land abroad to grow pulses, in order to meet the domestic demand. Formed in April this year, the Working Group is headed by the Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and also includes the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal.

The draft report of the Working Group states: "We should seriously consider these options (of buying land abroad) for at least 20 lakh tonnes of pulses and 50 lakh tonnes of oilseeds for 15-20 years." I feel there can be nothing more stupid than this recommendation. Nor is there anything new in this suggestion. Many decades back, the then Agriculture Minister Balram Jakhar too had made a similar suggestion asking Indian companies to engage in contract farming for pulses in Africa.

All such fanciful ideas are cropping up at a time when common sense has disappeared from public policy. Cultivating pulses abroad and then shipping it back to India is one such idea. At a time when farmers in India are passing through a terrible distress, with more than 40 per cent farmers wanting to quit agriculture if given a choice, I thought boosting domestic production of pulses could be one approach to make farming more profitable.

"Indian companies can be encouraged to buy land in countries like Canada, Myanmar, Australia and Argentina for growing pulses under long-term supply contracts to Indian canalising agencies. Similarly, such arrangements can be made with ASEAN countries for securing oilseed supply," says the draft report of the Working Group of Chief Ministers. I find the recommendations of the Working Group of Chief Ministers not only a stupid assertion but also dangerous. This would mean that the country will gradually reduce dependence on its own farmers for producing agricultural commodities, and this is exactly what the agribusiness companies have been lobbying for.

First of all, let us examine why is that India is unable to produce more pulses? After all, an additional 30 to 40 lakh tonnes should not be much of a problem. Only a few days back, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister, had announced a hike by about 30 per cent in the minimum support price (MSP) for kharif pulses, including tur or arhar. The underlying objective is to increase production.

At the same time, the government has decided to pay an additional Rs 500 per quintal for pulses sold by farmers to the government purchase agencies. In other words, Rs 500 per quintal is the bonus for growing pulses and selling it to the government. The additional payment will not impact the retail prices as it is purely on the government account. It will cost the government an additional Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000-crore.

By providing a respectable price to growers, the government has made its intention clear that it is looking forward to increase crop productivity by attracting more farmers to undertake cultivation of pulses. But what it has failed to visualise is that increasing the MSP for pulses is only one of the mechanisms to increase production. We need to understand that price alone cannot do the magic. If higher prices alone can increase production, the task would have been achieved long ago.
Higher prices have to be backed by an enabling environment for the farmers to invest in pulses or oilseeds. And this is where India has failed the farmers. Let me make it clear that production deficit is not due to dearth of technological innovations to improve productivity. The National Research Institute for Pulses, located at Kanpur, along with other research centres have already developed more than 400 improved pulses varieties. But production of pulses hasn't increased much.

Now where the problem lies is that even after the heady days of Green Revolution, what is not being realised is that the production of wheat and rice (the two most important staples) went up not because of the high-yielding varieties but because the policy makers had put together two-planks of what is called a 'famine-avoidance' strategy. With higher yields, production is expected to go up. But comes harvest, and the prices crash.

Assure farmers of procurement at attractive prices to boost production of pulsesProduction of mainly four crops - wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton - has gone up because the market is assured through the FCI purchase or the Cotton Corporation of India or by the sugar companies.

To ensure that farmers get a remunerative price as an incentive to continue producing the same crop, the government started providing MSP or in other words provided an assured price to growers. Assured price certainly becomes an incentive for the farmer who would normally be squeezed out by the trade at the time of the harvest. At the same time, the government set up a procurement system through a network of mandis. Whatever flows into the mandis and is not purchased by the private trade is mopped up by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other government agencies.

This means that farmers got an assured price and an assured market. They know that the labour they put in to raise a crop does not go waste. And it is primarily for this reason alone that production of mainly four crops -- wheat, rice, sugarcane and cotton -- has gone up. These are the only four crops where the market is assured, whether through the FCI purchase or the Cotton Corporation of India or by the sugar companies, and therefore the production of these crops has been steadily on the rise.
Pulse production has not increased primarily for the same reason. Although the government has been announcing a procurement price, but there is no assured procurement of the produce. More often than not farmers growing pulses have to resort to distress sale in the absence of an assured market. Government's failure to provide an assured market has forced the farmers to avoid cultivating pulses. They prefer to cultivate wheat, rice or sugarcane where they know the government will buy their produce.

What is therefore required is that instead of encouraging Indian companies to lease out land abroad, the emphasis should be to identify the regions in India where pulses production needs to be encouraged, and then to set up a series of mandis. For instance, why can't parts of semi-arid Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and even Punjab be identified for production of pulses? The government must give a commitment to farmers that from now onwards it will start procuring pulses in addition to wheat and rice.

The increase in procurement prices has to be accompanied by an assurance that whatever farmers produce will be procured. Just provide an assured market, and be ready for a bountiful supply of pulses all through the year. This will also rescue farmers in the inhospitable areas of the country. Pulses being crop of the marginal lands require less water and add atmospheric nitrogen to the soil. It will lead agriculture towards more sustainable farming systems, and also bail out the poor farmers from the poverty trap. Let us help our own farmers rather than provide more income in the hands of farmers abroad.

Spurious seeds flood the Indian market

By Devinder Sharma
18 Jun 2010


The poor regulation and absence of strict punitive measures in the present seed law encourage spurious seed manufacturers and sellers to exploit farmers.

A few weeks back I was travelling in the Nimad region of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Nimad derives its name from the neem tree. As the region's name suggests, neem is the dominant tree in this area. What however strikes you is multiplicity of Bt cotton posters that adorn walls, trees, buses etc. You see them everywhere.
I saw posters and banners of some 20 different brands of Bt cotton seed. To name a few: Super Mallika, Atal, Jai Bt, Ankur 3028, Ganesh, Gabbar, Mallika Gold, Superman, Jaadu Bt cotton, and Obama. I wonder how the farmer makes the right kind of choice, of which seed brand to pick up. How many of them end up being duped, your guess is as good as mine.

Hybrid seed is a lucrative market. There was a time when close to 2,000 brands of hybrid seeds of cotton were being sold in Andhra Pradesh. Interestingly, at least one of the parents in most of these hybrids was common. I wonder how could so many different kinds of hybrids (and all with higher productivity) be developed with one parent being common. In other words, most of these popular brands were nothing but duplicates being sold under different names.

So if there was a brand of hybrid cotton seed named Laxmi someone brought another brand called Super Laxmi. Farmers have to use their sixth sense (if any) in selecting the more genuine ones from hundred of brands flooding the market.

The menace of multiple brands of hybrid seeds has now spread to the northern parts of the country. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab are now faced with this problem. In all these States, hybrid seeds have flooded the market, mostly from Andhra Pradesh. Whether it is vegetable (which in any case is dominated by hybrids, with the UP, Haryana and Punjab governments providing subsidy on its cultivation), cotton or rice, what is being increasingly available in the market are only hybrid seeds.

In UP, a report in Dainik Jagran says the four main agricultural universities were provided with Rs 53 crore from the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna to develop locally adaptable hybrid seeds. But none of these universities have undertaken any such research project. Now don't ask, what happened to the Rs 53-crore (or Rs 530 million) allocated for the purpose. The average market price for hybrid seed that is available is Rs 200 per kg. Farmers have little choice but to go by the recommendation of the retailers selling the seed.

Quoting a State government report, the newspaper says that between 2006 and 2009, 40 private seed companies had made available 102 different kinds/brands of hybrid seeds to the agricultural universities for evaluation. Only 14 of these were made available for research in the second year of cultivation (since hybrids lose their hybrid vigour in the 2nd generation). It means that the hybrid seed sector is dominated by fly-by-night operators who make money from one year's sale, and than disappear probably to appear again with a new brand.
Not even one seed sample was drawn and sent for testing in any of the laboratories in UP.
That makes me wonder whether the kind of intense deliberations and engagement that a few of us (and that includes farmer organisations and NGOs) are involved in over the proposed Seed Bill will make any practical difference to the existing market realities? Is the Ministry of Agriculture even aware of the hanky-panky that goes unchecked in the name of improved seeds? And even if they are aware, do they care?
What is therefore urgently needed is a strict penalty clause with heavy penalties (and prison terms) in the proposed Seed Bill. Unless some of the guilty seed manufacturers and dealers are hauled up and given exemplary punishment, selling spurious seed will remain a flourishing business for all kinds of operators.
Well, knowing what the Prime Minister said: "Bhopals will happen, but the country has to progress," and that sends a message down the line, you should be prepared not to expect any meaningful change. After all, the more the seed samples are sold, the more it adds to the GDP calculations. Who cares for the aam kisan?

more interesting reads @www.d-sector.org

Wrong policies behind Rajasthan's water crisis

By Devinder Sharma
25 May 2010

Desert state Rajasthan, which has long been renowned for its traditional water harvesting methods, is today facing an acute water crisis. Policy makers blame the deficit rainfall for the crisis, but in fact misplaced agriculture and development policies have created the emergency.

Rajasthan is faced with an unprecedented water crisis. For over several years now, Rajasthan was drying up. With successive chief ministers busy inviting investments - to open up malls, hotels, water parks, real estate projects, special economic zones, golf courses -- the semi-arid lands of the Thar deserts have been sucked dry.

Rajasthan is in reality faced with a water famine.

I do not know the yardstick that determines whether the state is faced with a famine-like situation or not but the fact remains that water trains and water tankers are quenching the thirst in all 33 districts. Reports say that daily supply of water through water trains is meeting the drinking water requirement of Bhilwara and Pali districts. In addition, water tankers are catering to the needs of 77 cities/towns and 15,287 villages.

This is certainly an alarming situation. But it did not happen overnight. In 2009 also, water trains and tankers were pressed in to service to meet the requirement of 10,918 villages and towns. In fact, with each passing year the water crisis is worsening.

A train leaves every day from Kota to Bhilwara with water, and another train departs for Sojat block in Pali district. There is a proposal to add another water train carrying 14.40 lakh litres of water every day for Bhilwara district. The crisis has reached such an ebbing point that all officials concerned with water supplies have been asked to be back on duty, and the state government is monitoring water supply situation every week.

I am aware that monsoon rains have been playing truant for quite some time. But this is not the first time in history when rain gods have not been so kind to people living in Rajasthan. Yes, history tells us that Rajasthan was never faced a water famine like situation that it is passing through now. And that too at a time when Rajasthan has given the country two well-known water warriors - Rajender Singh and Lachchman Singh.

Some time back my friend Anupam Mishra of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in New Delhi wrote an excellent book "Aaj bhi khere hain talaab". The book is based on the remarkable water harvesting and traditional water conserving structures that Rajasthan provided. The book has been best-seller for several years, and is being referred to globally. But unfortunately, successive governments and the policy makers in Rajasthan never made an effort to read the book, and instead travelled to Israel to learn about drip-irrigation.

The water crisis that Rajasthan is faced with is in many ways a man-made crisis. I have always been saying that blame for water crisis is 30 per cent on the truant monsoon, and the remaining 70 per cent is man-made. We are primarily responsible for accentuating drought conditions because of the relentless water mining that we have indulged in merrily over the years. But have we learnt any lessons? Are we willing to make necessary corrections howsoever radical they may be? The answer is NO.

I do not understand why a dry state like Rajasthan encourages golf courses. Each 18-hole golf course daily consumes water equivalent to the needs of about 20,000 households. Each supermarket mall that is being built, consume on an average 1,000 litres of water per person who comes to shop. Each five-star hotel consumes another 600 litres per person per day. The worst are the real estate projects. They literally mine water.

What is the use of saving water in the parched and arid lands of Rajasthan if we allow the marble industry, producing almost 91 per cent of total marble in India, to guzzle every hour around 2.75 million litres of water. No wonder the majestic lakes of Rajasthan have all gone dry.

To make its economics workable, Rajasthan must adopt an agricultural policy that lays emphasis and provides assured market for the coarse cereals and pulses.
It doesn't end here. I have never fathomed the wisdom of allowing sugarcane and cotton to be cultivated in the semi-arid regions. Sugarcane requires three times more water than wheat and rice put together. Common sense tells us that we should be cultivating crops which require less water in the dry lands. Why can't Rajasthan cultivate mustard, jower and bajra on a large scale, and also take to pulses. All these crops require very less water.

To make its economics workable, Rajasthan must adopt an agricultural policy that lays emphasis and provides assured market for these coarse cereals and pulses. It needs to redesign the price structures in such a way that farmers do not lose out when they cultivate pulses and crops like jower and bajra. In fact, Rajasthan can easily turn into a pulse bowl of the country, meeting the shortfall that the country faces continuously in cases of pulses.

At the same time, I am shocked to learn that that agricultural universities in Rajasthan actually promote the cultivation of hybrid crops -- hybrid rice, hybrid sorghum, hybrid maize, hybrid cotton and hybrid vegetables -- which require almost 1.5 times to 2 times more water than the high-yielding varieties. On top of it the government is now busy pushing Bt cotton, whose water requirement is 10-20 per cent more than even the hybrid varieties of cotton.

You can ignore these suggestions at your peril. Don't forget, a recent report by NASA has already warned that Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are consuming 109 cubic kms of water in six years. NASA finds that the groundwater withdrawal is 70 per cent more in this decade than in the 1990s. At this rate, Rajasthan would be the worst affected. It already is.

If Rajasthan does not wake up now, the time is not far away when there will be mass exodus from within the state. People will be left with no alternative but to migrate.

Flawed policies behind water crisis

By Devinder Sharma
11 May 2010

Governments in power cite water scarcity as the prime reason behind their failure to ensure regular supply of safe drinking water to all citizens. But how come the private tankers and water bottlers always find enough water to sell?

During water scarcity, supply through private tankers becomes
thriving business
Every year during summer, the people in most cities and villages of India face the crisis of pure drinking water. With temperatures soaring, and with the major reservoirs drying, the battle for drinking water is becoming louder and bloodier, day by day. Unable to get their daily requirement of drinking water, angry protestors in various cities are taking to streets.

In the weeks to come, non-availability of water is sure to adorn the news. The warning bells have been ringing for over 15 years now, but nobody cared. Even now, when projections show that 70 per cent more ground water has been depleted in the past decade than in the last decade of 1990s, and that water sources across the country have been contaminated in almost all the states leading to serious health problems like cancer and fluorosis that damages bones, teeth and muscles, the nation is not perturbed.

Parliament was informed recently that 1.80 lakh villages (out of the 6 lakh villages in the country) are afflicted by poor water quality. What these villages drink is nothing but slow poison. In addition, what Parliament is not informed is that almost all the tributaries of our major rivers have become drain channels for the industry. Take, for instance, Ammi river flowing in the outskirts of Gorakhpur. For years now, over 1.5 lakh people who live on the banks of the river have been protesting against industrial effluents that have turned the river - the only lifeline for hundreds of villages on its banks - into a source of misery.

Ammi is not the only tributary that has turned into a drain. Almost all tributaries of the major Indian rivers flow dirty. Somehow the policy makers and planners treat the dirty rivers and tributaries as a misplaced sign of industrialisation, and thereby treat it as an index of development.

Returning back to the issue of shrinking drinking water availability, a parliamentary standing committee has informed that while more than 84 per cent of the households in rural areas are covered under rural water supply, only 16 per cent population gets drinking water from public taps. However, just 12 per cent of rural families have individual taps in their houses. This too is highly skewed in favour of the more progressive States. In Orissa, for instance, only 9 per cent households have access to tap water. If you travel to Kalahandi district, the percentage of population having access to tap water drops to a mere 2.76 per cent.

The picture isn't very rosy for the urban areas. Only 37 per cent of the households (both urban and rural) have access to tap water. In other words, not only food entitlements, there is an urgent need to ensure right to safe drinking water.

Isn't it shocking that after 63 years of Independence, only 12 per cent of the rural households have drinking water taps? This is despite the National Rural Drinking Water Programme being operative, for which Rs 8,000-crore was provided in 2009-10.

What is more shocking is that while the drinking water taps are going dry; there is never a shortage of water supply from tankers? In Mumbai, for instance, an estimate shows that nearly 48 per cent of the drinking water gets lost due to leaks from damaged pipelines. Some people suspect the tanker mafia is behind this major loss. Not only Mumbai, cities across the country are under siege by tanker mafia. In the rural areas too, the water mafia has been continuously at work. If the water sources are drying up across the country, I wonder from where the tankers get water. Every one knows that the tanker mafia is leaving the countryside parched and dry, but who cares?

Well, the corporate sector certainly gives an impression that it cares. It has to. After all, much of the water crisis is its creation. First the industries guzzle up water, and pollute the rivers and water bodies, and then they launch water saving initiatives under Corporate Social Responsibility. The ITC for instance has launched a project in Gurgaon to teach housemaids on how to save water while cleaning the utensils. Teaching the maid servants on how to save one mug of water is surely some responsibility!

What the corporate sector refuses to point at is the recent decision of the Andhra Pradesh government to allocate 21.5 lakh litres per day from the Krishna River in Guntur district to Coca-Cola. While several hundred villages in Guntur district are grappling with acute drinking water shortage, the government perhaps thinks that rural poor can quench their thirst from drinking Coke instead. To justify its exploitation of water, Coca-Cola claims to be buying mangoes for its Maaza brand under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. Hitting two birds with one stone, isn't it? But who cares?

Unfortunately, providing clean drinking water is no longer a national priority. Somehow the government believes that the more pressing need is to make the water resources available to the bottled water industry. With the elite and the middle class are satisfied at the easy availability of bottled water, the rest of the population continues to suffer. Over the years, the State and the Central government have shifted focus to the middle class, as if the rest of the country does not need water.

Overhaul policies that acerbate hunger

By Devinder Sharma
31 Mar 2010
India has several programmes to fight hunger but none has been effective. Unless we change the policies responsible for poverty and spread of hunger, National Food Security Act would become another piece of legislation incapable of making any difference to those who live in hunger and penury.

Hunger is more widespread in India than its middle class believes

In 2009, IFPRI ranked India 66th in Global Hunger Index for 88 countries. Hunger multiplied at a time when we had the bogus Public Distribution System operative, made more efficient by the addition of the prefix 'targetted', and we also had the office of Food Commissioner (set up in response to a petition in Supreme Court) monitoring the food distribution supplies. Hunger and malnutrition grew at a time when we had more anganwadis set up, and more schools being provided with mid-day meals.

Now, the government is proposing a National Food Security Bill to ensure that every poor family gets a minimum of 35 kg of foodgrains at Rs 3/kg. But, can we remove hunger by distributing cheap ration among poor through PDS? The answer is a big NO.

Hunger needs more than PDS ration, and that is where we are failing to focus on. Even the Right to Food campaign has failed to see beyond the entitlements, and its approach is no different from what the bureaucracy in the Ministry of Food has been recommending. Unless we remove the structural causes that acerbate hunger, and most of these relate to agriculture and management of natural resources, India would not be able to make any significant difference in reducing hunger.

Failure of delivery system

Hunger is basically outcome of our wrong policies and our inability to accept that the delivery system is not delivering. At present more than 20 government programmes exist to fight hunger and to provide food and nutritional security. These programs run by various Ministries range from Mid-day Meal Programme to National Food Security Mission, and Antyodaya Anna Yojna to Annapoorna Yojna.

However, despite such impressive programmes already running, and increased budget allocation for these every year, the poor still go hungry. The number of hungry and impoverished has increased with every passing year. UNICEF tells us that more than 5000 children die every day in India from malnourishment.

Therefore, to add another couple of schemes to the existing lot is certainly not going to make it any better for the hungry. Nor a mere tinkering of the approach will help. Replacing the ration cards for the PDS allocations with food stamps is one such misplaced initiative. If we persist with such borrowed ideas, hunger will continue to multiply.

I am a strong supporter of the right-based approach to fight hunger. But another piece of legislation that enshrines Right to Food as the basic human right is not going to make any difference to those who live in hunger and penury, and to the millions who are added to this dreaded list year after year. Right to Food cannot be ensured by simply ensuring on paper half the food entitlements (which has even failed to reach the needy) that a human body needs for normal human activity and growth.

Knowing that the existing programmes and projects have failed to make any appreciable dent, it is high time the opportunity provided by the proposed National Food Security Act be utilised in a realistic manner. It is a great opportunity, and we will let down the nation if we fail to bring about a radical overhaul of the existing approach to fight hunger. The entire debate has to therefore shift from the hands of a few bureaucrats and self-appointed experts who have monopolised any decision-making on hunger. It has to be taken to the nation, through a series of regional deliberations.

Poverty line

First and foremost, the time has come to draw a realistic poverty line. The Tendulkar Committee has suggested that 37 per cent of our population is living in poverty. Arjun Sengupta Committee had said that 77 per cent of the population (or 836 million people) is able to spend not more than Rs 20/day. Justice D P Wadhwa Committee has now recommended that anyone earning less than Rs 100 a day should be considered below the poverty line.

Knowing that India has one of the most stringent poverty line in the world, I think the fault begins by accepting the faulty projections. During Prime Minister Narasimha Rao's tenure, Planning Commission had even lowered the poverty estimates from 37 per cent to 19 per cent. Poverty estimates were restored back when the new Planning Commission took over. I am sure if we had persisted with the same poverty line of 19 per cent (in the beginning of 1990s), India would have banished hunger in official records by now.

But the tragedy is that none of the numerous committees, economic surveys and even the Supreme Court's advisory body on Right to Food had highlighted the dire need to change the poverty line to a more meaningful figure if the issue of growing hunger has to be nipped in the bud.

It doesn't help in continuing with faulty estimates. I therefore suggest that India should have two lines demarcating the percentage of absolute hungry and malnourished from those who are not so hungry. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee suggestion of 37 per cent should be taken as the new Hunger line, which needs low-cost food grains as an emergency entitlement. In addition, the Arjun Sengupta committee's cut-off at 77 per cent should be the new Poverty line.

Once we have set these criteria, the approach for tackling absolute hunger and poverty would be different.

Zero Hunger

Like in Brazil, the time has come when India needs to formulate a Zero Hunger programme. This should aim at a differential approach. I see no reason why people should go hungry in the villages, which produce enough food for the country year after year. These villages have to be made hunger-free by adopting a community-based localised food grain bank scheme. I agree with Ela Bhatt when she says that the village needs should be met from within a 100-km radius.

In the urban centres and the food deficit areas, a universal public distribution system is required. The existing PDS system also requires to be overhauled. Also, there is a dire need to involve social and religious organisations in food distribution. They have done a remarkable job in cities like Bangalore, and there are lessons to be imbibed.

Food for all

It is often argued that the government cannot foot the bill for feeding each and every Indian. This is far from true. Estimates have shown that the country would require 60 million tonnes of foodgrains (@35 kg per family) if it follows a Universal Public Distribution System. In other words, Rs. 1.10 lakh crore is required to feed the nation for a year.

The proposed National Food Security bill actually reduced the family food intake that has to be supplied through the public distribution system (PDS) from 35 kg to 25 kg per family. To the BPL families, the 25 kg of foodgrains will be supplied at Rs. 3 per kg, which means in actual terms the government has very cleverly reduced the food subsidy.

From the projected allocation of Rs. 56,000 crore for 2010-11, the expenditure on food will come down to an estimated Rs. 25,428 crore. What a shame! In a country, which fares much worse than sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to hunger and malnutrition, the government is trying to save money instead of fighting hunger.

The government somehow gives an impression that the country does not have the money to feed the hungry. Nothing can be further away from truth. If the government could provide Rs. 3.5 lakh crore as economic stimulus to the industry (actually the industry did not need it), and also provide for Rs. 5 lakh crore as revenue foregone in the 2010-11 fiscal, which are the sops and tax concessions to the industry and business, how can the government say it has no money. The annual Budget exercise is of roughly Rs. 11 lakh crores. Which means, the government is subsidising industrialists almost 50 per cent of it by way of direct sops, in addition to the what is provided in the Budget itself. The support by way of 'revenue foregone' is basically 'under the table' payment, since it lies outside the Budget allocations.

I suggest that Rs. 3 lakh crore from the 'revenue foregone' be immediately withdrawn. This should provide resources for feeding the hungry, and also for ensuring assured supply of safe drinking water plus sanitation. In addition to wheat and rice, the food allocation should also include nutritious coarse cereals and pulses.

Policy changes

But all this is not possible, unless some other policy changes are introduced to put the emphasis on long-term sustainable farming, and to stop land acquisitions and privatisation of natural resources. We need policies that ensure food for all for all times to come. This is what constitutes inclusive growth. A hungry population is a great economic loss resulting from the inability of the manpower to undertake economic activities. The debate on the proposed National Food Security Bill provides us an excellent opportunity to recast the economic map of India in such a way that makes hunger history.

Are we ready?

Processed food won't feed the poor

By Devinder Sharma
22 Mar 2010

Government is extending all possible support to the food processing industry on the pretext of food security and reducing wastage. However, the facts say the processing industry prefers imported ingredients over local food leading to increased wastage and rise in food prices.

Food processing will only make food dearer for poor
We repeatedly hear that India ranks 66th among the 88 countries categorised in the IFPRI Global Hunger Index. This is happening at a time when 40 per cent of fruits and vegetables go waste due to improper storage and in transportation, and that too in a country which is the second biggest producer of vegetables, experts tell us.

However, this flawed argument is very cleverly used to push food processing as a solution. Whether this will help in ensuring food security for the poor and have-nots is something that is very clearly ducked by the industry. No wonder, the Planning Commission is making available roughly Rs 1.50 lakh crores in the 10th and 11th Plan period for the food processing industry. It isn't therefore surprising when you hear radio advertisements telling you about Rs 50 lakh subsidy available if you set up a food processing plant.

First of all, this statistical figure of 40 per cent existed even when I was a student some 30 years back. I am sure ten years from now, we would still be hearing this data of 40 per cent wastage, while no body is making an effort to find out whether the wastage has been reduced or increased. The figure of food loss is used by the industry to seek more subsidy, more funds. And the academicians, and the policy makers, ostensibly appalled by the extent of food wastage, and in their ignorance support the massive subsidies demanded by the processing industry.


However, Yoga guru Swami Ramdev recently made it abundantly clear that the processed foods do not feed the poor and hungry. His organisation Patanjali Vidyapeeth in Haridwar had recently set up a food processing unit, probably one of the biggest in the country. As someone who is actually engaged in food processing, it was revealing to learn from him that the processed foods are expensive and therefore not an answer to the bigger question of feeding the country.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has also made budget allocations for the food processing industry. He has been more than kind to the food processing industry. He has allotted five food parks and given concessions on machinery for food processing equipments, which of course would be welcomed by the industry. Considering the impact of the policies, I wonder how it will help in addressing the food challenge for the country. Now, we know that food waste has to be minimised, but why do it in the name of feeding the poor?

Often the industry quotes another statistics - only 2 per cent of the food in India is processed, which is a pittance considering what the US and Europe does. This is something that I cannot digest. In fact, this is a misinformation campaign simply to hoodwink the gullible consumer to believe how urgent is the need to set up food processing plants.

Let us look at it dispassionately. In the Indian households most of the food is cooked and is processed at the home level. In other words, 100 per cent food is processed, the only difference being that it is done at the household level. The statistics that we quote are therefore misleading. If this food is not being processed by the industry, is there a problem? Does it mean that the processed food in the market would be more healthy and nutritious? If not, than why are we promoting a shift in our food consumption habits and patterns just to expand the reach of the market?

In the US and Europe people increasingly rely on processed foods from the shops because they do not know how to cook. In the OECD countries, the agri-business industry has over the years succeeded in building up the dependency for food supplied through shops. People are forgetting how to cook at home and eat healthy.

Not surprising to know that in the US alone, more than 4 lakh people die every year from obesity, and its related suffering. In other words, from eating the wrong food.

Considering that there is no need for us to follow the US and European models and increase the sale of processed foods in the shops. There is no need for us to spread the faulty information and 'educate' the people that they don't have to waste time in cooking, and that it is demeaning for the women to be in the kitchen. But yes, increasing number of members from the nouveau riche class feels ashamed in spending enough time at home to cook, and it is this class or generation that suffers more from diabetes and heart-strokes.

With growing awareness over health issues, consumers in India (and elsewhere) should be directed to reduce their growing preference for processed foods. Now from ready-to-serve paranthas to canned dal makhani are available on the supermarket shelves. Forget about the taste, they carry several harmful ingredients. Some people may find these products very useful, but I strongly feel that we need to educate the young on the advantages of cooking at home. It is not only economical, but also healthy and nutritious.

All industries thrive on subsidies and bailout packages. This is how the GDP goes up, and the manipulative Industrialists loot the State exchequer. More than any one, our industry is capable of taking care of itself and does not need support or handholding from the government. The subsidy allotted for the food processing industry should have been given to the farmers who are in dire need of support. If the farmer welfare is given adequate consideration, the entire food chain would be safe. And we can shun the processed foods, we will help the present generation, and also save the future generations from the unhealthy and hazardous foods that are being marketed.

Swami Ramdev has already inspired the nation to take control of their health in their own hands. We now have to extend this to the food that we consume. We have to take control of the food we eat. There is a need to build up a nationwide campaign on healthy cooking and healthy eating. As to the role the agri-business industry can play, I suggest it pays attention on rampant food adulteration that prevails.

If the industry can somehow ensure that the raw material and the ingredients that we need for our daily consumption are safe and pure, it would be no less than a revolution. At the same time, processing industry need not be always high tech and sophisticated in the manner that it bypasses some of the normal requirements that people have, like milk-based products (especially sweets) that are at present highly adulterated.

Equally worrying is the increasing dependence of the food processing industry on imported fruit concentrates. If you import orange concentrate from Brazil/Chile and then provide juice in tetra packs, this will not help reduce the 40 per cent fruits that go waste. In fact, the fruit wastage will increase. How can one justify that our own harvest of oranges/kinnows goes waste while the industry finds it convenient to import concentrates from abroad? Simply put, the arguments in favour of food processing that it would help in food security and reduce wastage are not based on sound logic and ground realities. But our policy makers are more concerned about the demands of the industry than the ground reality.

Empowering India with imported wisdom?

By Devinder Sharma
17 Mar 2010

A section of influential Indian middle class remains obsessed with anything foreign, more so American. No wonder, instead of making efforts to improve the education system of the country, the government is keen to invite the foreign universities to help educate India.

The Union Cabinet has cleared the Foreign Educational Institutional (regulation of entry and operation) Bill, which aims to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. This Bill follows the two controversial Bills pending for Parliamentary approval - the Nuclear Liability Bill and the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill.

Kapil Sibal, the Minister for Human Resource Development, is visibly excited. He is quoted in the media, saying: "A larger revolution than even in the telecom sector awaits us." Well, we all know that the path to hell is paved with good intentions.

Nothing can be more dangerous than programming the mindset of the young generation of India through an education system that has nothing to do with the great culture, tradition and wisdom that our ancient civilisation endowed us with. The present crop of politicians, more worrying are the younger lot that the Indian media talks about every day, are so myopic that they can't see anything beyond Europe and America.

If this is all that these politicians are capable of thinking and doing, I sometimes wonder why shouldn't we have political representatives from Europe and America sitting in Indian Parliament? After all, they will do the job of re-colonising the country much more efficiently than their sub-standard Indian clones.

There are a large number of people in this country who are sold out to everything American. They live in India, but have an American dream. They will find fault with the higher education system in the country, and wouldn't mind even if the country's education system is eventually taken over by substandard colleges and universities from North America, Europe and Australia. It is in this context that I find the editorial in the Economic Times (Mar 17, 2009) under the title 'University of California, Ghazipur' interesting. This is what it says:

"But such a law is unlikely to open the floodgates for foreign providers of quality education. The reality is that 'for-profit' describes hardly any of the world's best institutions of higher learning. In any case, the Bill stipulates that all profits would have to be ploughed back into the Indian venture and not repatriated. Only second rate outfits not allergic to some accounting innovation that allows them to circumvent this ban are likely to invest in Indian campuses."

Isn't it a shame that the country that gave the world its first universities, is now feeling thrilled that some of the B-grade foreign universities are likely to open campuses in India, if the government has its ways.

I have been lecturing at various universities abroad, and have always come back disappointed at the level of competence.

Read the complete article @http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1105

Bailing out the richest

By Devinder Sharma
12 Mar 2010

Forbes magazine says India has almost twice the number of billionaires than last year. Strangely these richest of the rich gained when the world economy was badly hit by the meltdown. Was it despite or due to the economic recession?

Economic stimulus package helped billionaires
to increase wealth (courtesy: ndtv)
In 2009 when the world was bogged down by economic recession, and some ripples were also felt in India, an estimated $20 trillion was pumped in to boost the global economy. India too provided a bailout package, in three instalments, totalling to approximately Rs 3.5 lakh crore.

In February 2010, when Finance Minister was to present the annual Budget, the media had launched an orchestrated campaign saying that the economic bailout package should not be withdrawn. You could see almost every TV channel (and the pink newspapers) bombarding day and night how damaging it would be for the national economy if the bailout package was withdrawn.

Participating in the discussions on Budget, I did make it loud and clear (to the discomfort of the economists on the TV panels) that the bailout package was not required in the first instance, and should be withdrawn immediately.

Subsequently, I heard the Prime Minister say that only 1.5 lakh jobs were created in 2009 (against the projected 12 million). I guess this statement was used by the industry and business to defend the need for the continuation of the bailout package.

In my understanding, the bailout package was actually a dole to the industry and business to strengthen its bottom line. If you think that the layoffs in the industry were because of the economic recession, you are highly mistaken. Recession was very conveniently used by the industry to go in for labour-shedding, nothing more than that. Ask those journalists who have lost their job recently, and they will tell you they were laid-off not for reasons of economic meltdown.

Nevertheless, the economic meltdown provided an excellent opportunity for the rich to amass more wealth. Otherwise there is no way that the world's wealthiest club can grow wealthier at times of an economic meltdown. The bailout packages came out handy for the rich to accumulate more wealth, and that too in the name of rebuilding the global economy.

View the complete article@ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1087

Thou shalt not question GM food!

By Devinder Sharma
03 Mar 2010

The proposed National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill threatens the very essence of democratic values and freedom.



If Indian govt has its way, such agitations against GM food will land people in jail
The ghost of Emergency is back. In fact, it is going to be much worse than the Emergency period. During the infamous Emergency era, anyone could be arrested for questioning the powers that be. If the Ministry for Science & Technology has its ways, you can be arrested for simply questioning the safety of your own food, if it is genetically modified.

As massive police action against Maoists, called Operation Green Hunt, is underway in the tribal regions of India, the government is now getting ready with yet another policing campaign to silence people's voices demanding safe food. Armed with the proposed NBRA, the government will now unleash a war against its own citizens. Their crime: they demand to know whether what they are being forced to eat is safe or not.

The unprecedented muzzle on the right to freedom of speech of every citizen forms part of the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill that is likely to be introduced in the Budget session in Parliament. Denials notwithstanding, Chapter 13 section 63 of the draft bill says, "Whoever, without any evidence or scientific record misleads the public about the safety of the organisms and products…shall be punished with imprisonment for a term that shall not be less than six months but which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or with both."

During Emergency, you faced jail for your political differences. But if the proposed BRAI bill becomes legislation, you will have to in addition pay a fine.

Even critical journalist writings can land the writer in jail. And those who dare to protest or cause obstruction to experiments too can be hauled up with imprisonment and/or fine or both. People's right to know more about the experiments conducted to determine environment and health safety too have been taken away. Article 27 (1) of the bill seeks to keep the information related to research, approval and science of the GM products out of the purview of the Right to Information ( RTI) Act.

The National Campaign for People's Right to Information finds the definition of "confidential commercial information" under section 2(h) limiting and restricting in the sense that any and all documents submitted to the Authority for research, transport or import of organisms and products will not be available for public scrutiny. Further, Section 81 overrides the RTI Act 2005 when it says: "the provisions of this Act shall have effect, notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this Act to have overriding effect."

That something as simple as food should invite such coercive measures to stifle critical voices is clearly a pointer at the desperation to push the seemingly unhealthy GM foods down our throat. Otherwise there seems to be no justification for even drafting such a law that gags public opinion. GM crops are known to be devastating to the environment and ecology, and the push for its acceptance undermines the task of biodiversity conservation. This goes against the recommendations of the Swaminathan Task Force Report, which said: "the bottom line for any biotechnology regulatory policy should be the safety of the environment and the economical and ecological sustainability of farming systems."

No wonder, the draft bill also says that the BRAI will set up its own appellate tribunal, which will have the jurisdiction to hear arguments on the issues concerning biotechnology. In case of any disputes, petitioners can only approach the Supreme Court of India.

Any regulatory mechanism should inspire public confidence, and not take away the right to question the science and the process. Already the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), which is the apex body for environmental clearance for the GM crops, has come under a lot of flak for being a rubber stamp for the biotechnology industry. The moratorium on Bt brinjal announced by the Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has clearly brought the need for a more open, transparent and accountable regulatory mechanism.

Still worse, I don't understand the urgent need that is being shown to set up a fast-track single window clearance for the controversial GM crops. Even in the USA, the Mecca for GM crops, the clearance system comprises three windows -- the US Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA). Even then, the US regulatory process has been questioned time and again, and has been found to be faulty.

In India, the decision to approve GM crops, would essentially wrest with three member expert committee of the Department of Biotechnology. This has been given a go-bye. Moreover, the fact that the bill has been listed for introduction in Parliament with no space for discussion of its contents shows what is in store ahead.

Why we should oppose Bt brinjal?

By Devinder Sharma
11 Feb 2010

Though the government of India has cancelled the GEAC approval for commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal, majority of people remain unaware of the facts related to the controversy. Here are FAQs to help the readers:

Brinjal is in the eye of a storm. With the Environment & Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh putting a moratorium on the introduction of what could have been India's first genetically modified food crop - Bt brinjal - the nation has been saved from a poisonous food.

Based on the wide ranging public consultations held across the country, Jairam Ramesh's decision has also come as an indictment of the scientific regulatory process. At the same time, the Minister has for the first time questioned the need to go in for GM technology when there were other pest management alternatives, much safer environmentally and for human health, available.

As expected, the historic decision has opened up a can of worms. Agricultural scientists and the private seed companies have come under a cloud, and therefore an orchestrated media campaign has been launched. It is therefore important to explain some of the hotly debated aspects of the decision, which are getting lost in the din of accusations and counter-allegations. Let me answer some of the frequently asked questions.

Bt brinjal and GM crops are important for a country which has more than 1 billion people to feed.

There is no GM crop in the world which increases productivity. In fact, most of the GM crops actually reduce productivity. The US Department of Agriculture admits that the productivity of GM corn and GM soya is less than that of the normal varieties.

There is no shortage of food in the world. We have 6.5 billion people on Earth, and we produce food for 11.5 billion people. If more than 1 billion people are going to bed hungry globally, it is because of the faulty distribution process rather than the unavailability of food. The same holds true for India, where one third of the population cannot even buy food that is available. Poor people find it even difficult to buy wheat and rice at Rs 2/- a kilo. The question therefore is not of production but access and distribution.

Bt brinjal increases productivity. So why stop it?

This is not true. Bt gene acts more or less like a chemical pesticide which is sprayed from outside, whereas Bt produces a toxin within the plant.

If the Bt gene increases productivity, then some may argue that chemical pesticides also increase productivity. Can scientists accept that chemical pesticides increase productivity? But in case of Bt crops, they don't mind creating a false illusion to misguide the farmer.


How can Bt brinjal adversely affect farmers?

Bt is a biological pesticide. It releases poison in the plant. It has been established that compared to Bt biopesticide sprays, the concentration of Bt toxin in Bt brinjal is one thousand times more. Bt biopesticide sprays are harmful, imagine the impact Bt brinjal toxin will have on the environment.

Bt crops releases a toxin in soil through the roots. It has affected beneficial soil microflora, and studies at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) have proved this. There have been animal deaths from grazing on Bt cotton leaves in Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana. The GEAC has simply brushed this aside even though the Andhra Animal husbandry department has warned farmers not to let their livestock graze in Bt cotton fields.

Genetically modified crops also create superweeds, which are not controlled by any chemical. Georgia province in America is fast turning into a wasteland due to massive infestation of superweeds. World-over, 26 countries are now facing the menace of superweeds. GM crops also destroy biodiversity by contamination. India is the Centre of Origin for brinjal, and therefore needs to be more than cautious.

Bt is supposed to kill sucking pests like pink bollworm in cotton, and fruit and shoot borer in brinjal, thereby reduce pesticides consumption. This however does not hold true for long. In China, which was promoted as a silver-bullet case, cotton farmers growing Bt cotton are now reported to be spraying 8 per cent more pesticides than on non Bt crops and thereby incurring losses. Resurgence of secondary pests has been observed in China (like mealy bug in Punjab), as a result of which farmer's total usage of pesticides increases. This report is based on a study conducted by the Cornell University.

In India too, insects are developing resistance to Bt cotton. That is why the need to bring in Bollgard-II with two Bt genes. But no scientific study is being undertaken on pest resistance in Bt cotton.

Even in America, where herbicide-tolerant crops are prevalent, the usage of herbicides has increased. There are several USDA reports stating this.

Bt crops are safe for human consumption. So why are people expressing concern?

Numerous experiments all over the world have shown that Bt in particular and GM in general poses tremendous health risks. Even Monsanto's own studies on rats in Europe have demonstrated that the animals have terrible problems with their body organs- kidney, liver, pancreas, blood etc, and also can result in serious diseases and allergies. Some studies in Austria have recently shown that GM also leads to infertility.

All those scientists who dared to question the human safety aspect were hounded out of their jobs by the proponents of the GM industry. The only human safety trial conducted so far establishes that the alien gene in the human body does transfer to the gut bacteria. This can have serious implications. But no further tests are allowed to be conducted anywhere in the world on human safety.

Bt brinjal is one thousand times more poisonous than the Bt biopesticide sprays. If Bt biopesticide sprays can kill insects, imagine what would happen to human bodies after consuming food that has one thousand times more toxins inside.

These deformities can pass on from generation to generation, like some studies on pesticides have now shown.

But the GEAC, the regulatory authority, had conducted enough tests on human safety. So why worry?

Adequate scientific tests to determine human safety of the genetically modified food were not performed. Instead of the 29 tests that should be conducted before GM food is allowed to be served, the GEAC had expressed 'satisfaction' with some 4 to 5 tests and that too done in a shoddy manner. Interestingly, the GEAC says that it had conducted tests as per the international protocols, but the fact is that there are no accepted international scientific protocols so far.

Even in tests on rats, the tests have been conducted only on ten rats for 90 days. The results show that the rats did suffer serious abnormalities in kidney, liver and blood. These have been simply brushed aside as 'biologically insignificant'. This is shocking considering that Bt gene releases poison in the plant. How can the GEAC simply ignore the health abnormalities seen in rats, even if it is on one rat?


The normal life span of rats, corresponding with the human beings, is for 2 years. Since it has now been found that the impact of chemical pesticides for instance are passed on from generation to generation, and are even felt in the third generation, the human safety tests for Bt brinjal need to conducted for several generations. After all, we are going to eat Bt brinjal all through our life. How can its safety be determined by rat studied for only 90 days and that too inconclusively?

We know that smoking cigarettes for 2-3 weeks does not cause cancer. To know whether smoking cigarettes can cause cancer you have to tests for several generations. Why is the industry not willing to perform tests for several generations in rats to know the health impacts from continuously consuming genetically modified crops?

GEAC is an expert committee. Why doubt the recommendations of the expert committee?

The GEAC recommendations were rigged. The GEAC had set up an Expert Committee -II (called EC-II) which had some members who were also involved in developing Bt crops. This was a sure case where a conflict of interest was evident. How can people who develop GM crops also sit on the approval process?

The norms and bylaws of the EC-II were lowered to suit the interests of the private seed companies. All experiments were conducted by the private companies, and the GEAC had accepted the data provided by the private seed company. Let us also not forget that the private seed company had refused to share the analysis with the general public, and it was only after the Supreme Court's directive that the research data was made public.

The entire regulatory process is a sham. Jairam Ramesh's decision is clearly an indictment of the GEAC. The report is full of unscientific conclusions and inaccuracies. At the same time, the report blatantly ignores the dangerous impact of Bt brinjal on the body organs of rats and other animals, and also the environment. The chairman of EC-II himself has said that he is not sure of the health impact of Bt brinjal.

Let us have an open and transparent debate on the regulatory process. If the GEAC decision is found to be wrong and unscientific, the chairman of GEAC should be put to trial. After all, we cannot allow anyone to play havoc with the lives of the masses.

Farmers are better judge of a technology. Why not leave Bt brinjal as an option for the farmers to use, if he finds it useful?

This is a joke. If we leave harmful technologies in the hands of people, the world would die an unnatural death sooner than later. Cigarette smoking for instance cannot be left to people. Even though every packet contains a bold statement 'cigarette smoking is injurious to health' and yet its sales goes on increasing. Because it was unhealthy and dangerous, governments have stepped in and banned its usage in public places. Was that a wrong decision?

Similarly, GM crops cannot be left to the farmers to decide as an option. Farmer too gets influenced by the marketing blitz of the companies. The entire State machinery -- Agri Universities, Farm extension depts, companies and the media have been promoting GM crops. With such a powerful marketing blitz how do you expect the farmer to make informed choices? Also, if the farmer was so sensible, the usage of chemical pesticides would not have multiplied to the present dangerous levels.

Already farmers are committing suicide because of the faulty technologies imposed upon them. How many more farmers do we want to be killed before stopping the killer technologies from being used?