— Photo: AP

French farmer-activist Jose Bove.

NEW DELHI: World activists will gather at Geneva on October 15 to protest against the World Trade Organisation policies that had contributed to the "corporate hijack of food and agriculture systems." They will later protest at the Hong Kong Ministerial in November to press for the WTO to get out of agriculture just as in Seattle and Cancun.

Announcing this at the Navdanya Farmers Convention here on Alternatives to Corporate Agriculture and the WTO, the world famous farm-activist from France, Jose Bove, said that the WTO rules dictate that far from being a producer, the farmer had now become someone who is exploited, who could no longer decide on his/her own way of managing the land, nor freely choose a technique for this. "Either we accept intensive production and the huge reduction in the number of farmers in the interests of World Free Markets or we create farmers agriculture for the benefit of everybody."

He stressed the need for new rules under globalisation that were not loaded against the farmers of the developing countries. "As of now, the developed countries want to deny access to developing countries to their markets, but want to gain control of their agriculture and food."

Colin Hines, Adviser to the European Greens and the author of the book, Localisation: the Global Manifesto, felt that the situation was "so desperate" that the global trading system had no choice but to introduce protective measures to domestic markets. "To provide a secure future for farmers in poor and rich countries alike will require a transformation in world trade rules. This would be to make protection and re-diversification of national economies the end goal, rather than the present emphasis on evermore open markets to ensure international competitiveness."

S.P. Shukla, former Ambassador to the General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs (GATT) during the Uruguay Round, pointed out that during GATT, there was a right to impose Quantitative Restrictions on imports to control the balance of payments. "There should be a parallel right to impose QRs. If the WTO Agreement on Agriculture is implemented, then of the three billion farmers in the world only 40 to 50 million would survive."

Convenor of the National Group on Patents Law B.K. Keayla said: "The WTO preamble maintains that employment and prosperity should increase. But even after 10 years, developing countries are great losers as despite being required to reduce their subsidies, the developed countries have done just the opposite. This distorts prices and leaves no level playing ground for developing countries." According to him, under such circumstances there can be no agreement on agriculture.

Utsa Patnaik from the Centre of Economic Studies and Planning at Jawaharlal Nehru University argued that the reduction in farm investment since 1991 by the Indian government had led to decline in production, especially in foodgrains, and a decline in the purchasing power of farmers.

Executive Chairman of the Bharat Krishak Samaj Krishna Bir Chaudhary said corporate farming was not possible in India where the average land holding was merely one hectare. There should not be any restriction on farmers saving and exchanging seeds.

"Multi-national companies are promoting genetically modified seeds, but there is no market for them. Only organic farming has a potential market."

Pointing out that trans-national companies were now seeking to get into organic farming, the Director of the International Relations at the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), Bernward Geier, said organic farming that ensures food safety and security was developing throughout the world. Today 36 countries had achieved mega-country status, meaning that over 50,000 hectares of certified organic farming was being practised.

Over 26 million hectares of land was currently certified worldwide, generating over $ 25 billion revenue in 2003.

"Clearly organic farming is the alternative to corporate farming," he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail