Road to doom! Srinidhi and Mech-184 bollgard posters plastered across the countryside, Perambalur district ,Tamil Nadu.
"Agriculture is a state subject and most states have failed
utterly to evaluate the frightening scale of this Bt Cotton
disaster. The agricultural department needs to take a firm stand to
ensure that the regulatory regime is strengthened for the
protection of the farmer," said Thangamma Monnappa, GE-Free India
campaigner, Greenpeace India.
"The Bt Cotton seed companies are going berserk with their
deceitful ways claiming high yields and great benefits on Bt
Cotton. Never before have seed companies used so many tools and
methods to ensure sales for their product. The aggressive and
misleading selling techniques adopted by the Bt Cotton companies
show utter disregard for the farmers' choice to buy seed. This also
severely limits the options available for promoting safer
alternatives like organic farming. The assertion by Monsanto that
the increase in acreage of Bt Cotton is an indication of the
success of Bt Cotton is as questionable as their false
advertising", she added.
Dr G V Ramanjaneyulu, Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable
Agriculture said, "The Bt Cotton industry would like us to believe
that their sales are an indication of farmers' acceptance of the
technology and that it is a science-based industry. We have a
different story to tell. This compilation of various marketing
practices, including stories of outright lies on the Bollgard
posters, misleading advertisements of farmers with exaggerated
claims to lure other farmers, of using a variety of incentives and
even questionable means to attract and entrap farmers makes us
question the claims of the company. Such aggressive marketing in a
situation where the technology itself is imprecise and where
accountability mechanisms are non-existent is bound to spell doom
for many farmers".
The MEC organizations, based on their documentation of Bt Cotton
marketing practices from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, have written to the
State Directors of Agriculture for immediate action in the matter.
They have also approached the Advertisements Standards Council of
India for its intervention in this regard.
The MEC has been using the 'Kisaan Suraksha Kawach' -a legal
manual that has been developed to assist farmers in fixing
liability on the seed corporations in the event of crop
failure.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (MEC) demands:
- that the aggressive and even false marketing of Bt Cotton be
stopped immediately
- that the Bt Cotton companies reveal the total amount spent on
marketing the seed so far
- that liability be fixed on the companies in all those cases
where they are found to have resorted to unscrupulous, misleading,
aggressive and false marketing
- that the governments pro-actively put out information to
farmers about how to protect themselves from such companies and
also put into place simple mechanisms for loss-incurring farmers to
claim compensation and remediation.
For further information, contact:
Thangamma Monnappa,
Genetic Engineering Campaigner, Greenpeace India
Tel: +91-98454 37337, E-mail: 
Kavitha Kuruganti,
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture
Tel: +91-9393001550, E-mail: 