Polluted & poisonous water of Agra canal

damaging large area of Moong Crop

in Palwal (Haryana)

Water is Life,
Polluters must pay and be punished

Parthenium Weed
Damaging Moong Crop

GM & Nano foods

destroying India’s population
Www.kisankiawaaz.org Vol.1 No.7.July,2010
 Opening up Indian food trade to European Union and the US
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary The decision of Government of India to give Free Trade status to European Union
in agriculture products spells disaster for Indian farmers. If the ostensible purpose
of the Indian Government is to ensure food security and food sovereignty, then this
move will destroy our farmers and our food growing potential.

The main causes for food insecurity and consequential widespread malnutrition in India is
not inability of farmers to grow enough food. Farmers have been led to believe that: (i) they
must earn cash to raise their standard of living; (ii) in order to earn cash they must produce for
the market, (iii) earn cash income and (iv) use the cash to buy food and other services from the
enforced market economy. In the US and EU a farmer is fortunate to get a net return of 5% on
revenue; in the LDCs the entire household must work, including women and children, to earn a
subsistence or starvation wage. Indian farmers have been duped by seed, fertilizer and pesticide
companies ever since the Green Revolution started. Market forces entice farmers to grow cash
crops that are raw materials for food, feed and fibre industries controlled by global cartels. They
are lured by promises of higher income but it falls when there is bumper crop and it falls when
yields drop. This is of course Government engineered.

The major threat to Indian agriculture would come from the huge subsidy that the European
Commission and the US government provide to its biggest farmers [not their own small farmers,
please note] that allows the cartel backed by their respective governments to manipulate global
agricultural commodity prices exactly as they want. The top 10% of the biggest agricultural producers
[in the USA] received more than 72% of its $23 billion subsidy programs in 2005. Meanwhile, 60% of
all US farmers do not collect any government subsidies. The European Commission data show that in
2004, US$36 billion (€28.2bn) of direct subsidies was paid out of a total Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) budget of $58bn (€45.6bn) and 7% of Europe's primary food producers received more than 50%
of these payments. The biggest 2,460 farmers in Europe received on average $667,000 (€524,000) each,
totaling $1.7bn (€1.3bn).

The sops totaled over 140 billion dollars over 1995-06 in the US as well and covered cotton, canola, soy,
sorghum, among other agriculture commodities. These products would be dumped on India by the
combined might of US and EU, while their corporatized farmers enjoy huge subsidies. The US
Government is on record for stating that food shall be used as a weapon. Take rice, which is staple
food for nearly 3.7 billion Asians. The US Government provided about one billion dollar subsidy to
just three rice growers in the US over 1995 to 2006: $526 million to Riceland Foods, $314 million to
Producers Rice Mill and $146 million to Farmers' Rice Cooperative. And US rice is contaminated
with genetically engineered genomes that would kill healthy Indians. When German farmers found
that genetically engineered seeds had contaminated their foods, they requested their Government
to enhance contamination level from 0.1% to 0.9%, a nine times increase.

In matters of agriculture, the Government of India must stop Free Trade with EU and the US
because in these two regions small farmers have disappeared, industrial farming is the norm and
that is controlled by five seeds corporations and about ten agri-business corporations. Together
they control global supply of food grains, milk, meat and all foods. The Government of India
must not support global monopolies if it has any respect for law, morality and socio-
economic reality of India where 70% household are dependent on farming.

Krishan Bir Chaudhary

 Vol. 1 No. 7 July, 2010

KISAN KI AWAAZ
National Magazine of Farmers’ Voice
Editor :

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary,

President,
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj,
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar,
Delhi-110091
Advisory Board :
S. P. Gulati, Sect. G.O.I., Retd.
Lingraj B. Patil
Dr. Mangesh Deshmukh
Dr. R.B. Thakare
D. Guruswamy, Adv.
Rajesh Sharma “Bittoo”
Pratap Singh, DIG Retd.
Hatam Singh Nagar, Adv.
K. Sareen
Ajay Singh
Desiged by : Rahul Sharma
Aastha Chaudhary
Printed & Published by :
Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary on behalf of
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj.
Printed at Everest Press, E-49/8, Okhla
Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-20.
Published at :
CONTENTS
SEEDS WITH CORPORATE GERM 2
*S. Bala Ravi
Study: Quality of Israeli sperm 5
*Ofri Ilani
Europe and India Push to 6
*Raphael Minder and Tom Redburn
From pesticides to GMO's : 7
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
Monsanto's Glyphosate Problems: 10
* Ken Roseboro, ed.
India's biodiversity travails 12
* Jaspal Singh Sidhu
ge fdl fnu ds bartkj esa gS 16
* vrqy dqekj vutku
“MERIGOLD A POOR MAN'S SAFFRON” 18
* Tajinder Singh Wazir
Horror Of US Depleted Uranium In 21
*James Denver
Where Do Chemicals in Our Food 27
* Dr. Frank Lipman .MD

F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110091 Nano foods and rice 28

Mob.:9810331366, Telefax:011-22751281, * Arun Shrivastava CMC
kbc@kisankiawaaz.org
E-mail:bharatiyakrishaksamaj@gmail.com Bill Gates now pushing genetically 29
Website:- www.kisankiawaaz.org * David Gutierrez

Now, panchayats can donate 32

The views expressed by the
authors are their own. The
editor does not accept
responsibility for returning
unsolicited publication material.
Disputes arising if any will be
under Jurisdiction of Delhi
Court
Single copy Rs. 25/-, Annual Rs. 300/-
* Chander Parkash
New Subscription
Annual subscription charge of Rs 300/- for our monthly journal
'KISAN KI AWAAZ' may please be sent by cheque/Draft, drawn in
favour of BHARATIYA KRISHAK SAMAJ,
F-1/A, Pandav Nagar, Delhi-110091.
Complimentary Copy
Suggestions for improvement are invited

July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 1

 SEEDS WITH CORPORATE GERM
*S. Bala Ravi
Advisor (Biodiversity), M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai

T hird edition of the Seeds Bill 2004 is currently

before the Indian Parliament. Its first edition
was referred to the Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Agriculture (PSCA) comprising 20
MPs from LokSabha, 10 MPs from Rajya Sabha and
chaired by Prof. Ram Gopal Yadav in view of wider
opposition from farmers, public and
Parliamentarians. The report of the PSCA submitted
in October 2006 had addressed almost all concerns
a n d maximum
recommende
d exhaustive
revamp of the
Bill. A second
edition of this
Bill tabled in
t h e State Seed
Parliament in
2008, got
lapsed with
t h e t r a d e d .
prorogation
of 14th Lok
Sabha. A
reading of the
2008 and
2010 editions
of the Bill
reveals a
consistent official unwillingness in accepting some
important recommendations of PSCA and
backtracking on some other.
This Seeds Bill seeks to repeal the existing Seeds Act
of 1966 and to take over regulation of seed trade,
import and export to facilitate supply of quality seeds
to farmers. The 2010 edition of Seeds Bill is distinct
from the Seeds Act of 1966 on following aspects: Bill
covers all seeds including living embryo and
vegetative planting material such as seedlings, tuber,
bulbs, rhizomes, roots, cuttings, grafts, tissue culture
plantlets and synthetic seeds. All seeds traded, except
farmers' are to be registered. Such registration is
centralized with the Central Sub-Committee for
Registration. The right of States to approve varieties is
recalled. State level registration is compulsory for
every seed producer, processing unit, distributor and
trader. Agronomic performance assessed in multi-
location trails is an eligibility criterion for variety
registration. Seeds traded must have a variety identity
and apart from acceptable agronomic performance
should meet the minimum prescribed standards for
germination, genetic and physical purity and
standard in
seed health.
Only the seeds
certified by an
accredited
Central and
Te s t i n g
Laboratories
are to be
Registration
of a variety
allows its
marketing
right for 20
years in the
case of annual
or biennial
crops and 24 years in the case of perennial crops, with
one extension and re-validation of agronomic
performance. Such marketing duration under the
Seeds Act, is 15 years. National Register of Seeds is to
maintain details of all registered varieties. The Bill
provides new labeling standards and to include a
declaration on the expected performance of the seed
and the conditions required to realize such
performance.
Farmers failing to realize such performance are
eligible for compensation. All these changes from the
current chaotic seed trade regime under 'truthful'
labeling are welcome. State administration with Seed
Inspectors at field level continues to be responsible for

2 Kisan Ki Awaaz July - 2010

enforcement of most of the regulatory clauses. The
Bill empowers Seed Inspectors to enter and search
any place where commission of offence is suspected
and to confiscate stock of spurious seeds with prior
written order from the District Magistrate and to
initiate prosecution of offenders. However, the
history of enforcement of Seeds Act in many states is
notable for inaction, inefficiency and corruption, all
causing loss and damage to farmers. Soft punishment
to offences is another reason for low prosecution rate.
Seed is a universal input in crop production. Quality
seed, having good viability, vigour and true to type
expression, alone is considered to increase yield by
15-20 %. At least 30 % of seeds sown every year in
India by small and not so small farmers are supplied
by the formal seed trade. Remaining 70 % lie in the
farmer seed system, comprising both traditional and
improved seeds, which are saved, shared, exchanged
or locally sold by farmers. Thanks to the amendments
recommended by the PSCA, the Bill now spares the
farmer seeds system from its regulations.
The Bill recognizes farmer for his triple roles in
cultivation, conservation and breeding. The Bill does
not deem farmers as 'seed producers', while it totally
safeguards the farmers' right to grow, save, resow,
exchange, share or sell seeds and planting material,
except sale of seeds under a brand name. While a
seeds law on traded seeds is more important to
farmers, its effective enforcement also depends on its
harmony with other domain national laws, namely,
the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights
(PPVFR) Act, the Biological Diversity (BD) Act, the
Environment Protection Act and the Plants, Fruits and
Seeds (Regulation of Import into India) Order. Some
of these issues which are causes of concern to farmers
are discussed.
One major anti-common deficiency is the lack of
transparency in variety registration. Nothing in the
Bill says registration requires disclosure on the origin
and ownership of varieties. Variety registration is
being left as a free walk on mere satisfaction of seed
standards and agronomic performance, with no
mandatory requirement for its prior registration under
PPVFR Act or disclosure of its PBR or right of license
or other kind of right. Lack of transparency is due to
omission of pre-registration publication of
application and pre-grant opposition of registration.
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
There is need to either enforce a priori registration of
varieties under PPVFR Act, or opening application on
every variety, except those registered under PPVFR
Act, for pre-grant opposition and providing for
punishment for wrong or misleading disclosure.
As the Seeds Bill promotes commercialization of
biological material, it has to be in harmony with the
BD Act and PPVFR Act in respect of access and
benefit sharing (ABS). This is important as India has
been championing the cause of ABS in all
international fora on biodiversity and as India is a
party to legally binding International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which
provides for benefit sharing as part of the Farmers'
Rights. The legal framework on ABS is provided in
the BD Act and PPVFR Act. This requires truthful
disclosure of the genetic material used to breed any
variety registered under Seeds Bill with details of their
geographical origin, passport data, etc, and a
declaration on the legal access to these materials.
The Seeds Bill bypasses this important requirement,
in the absence of provision that registration under this
Bill requires prior registration under PPVFR Act. By
not doing so, the present Bill allows double protection
to registered varieties; protection for trade and
protection for keeping variety origin a trade secret.
Such trade secret on hybrid varieties offers a de facto
monopoly much stronger than a patent on these
varieties. Thus, the Seeds Bill indirectly pre-empts the
need for securing PBR under PPVFR Act, while it
legitimizes biopiracy and right to swap varieties,
including farmers' varieties for seed trade.
Another anti-farmer omission in the Bill is on
regulation of seed prices and ensuring its normal
supply, despite recommendations for such including
such provision by the PSCA and National
Commission on Farmers. This could be addressed by
placing Seeds Bill in tandem with PPVFR Act, which
has a mechanism to ensure seed supply and regulate
prices. The Court ruling on Bt-cotton seed slashing the
prices to below 50 % of what was levied by a big seed
company and the demand by the Minister of
Agriculture, MPs and MLAs from Andhra Pradesh for
including provision for price regulation underscore its
importance.
The Seeds Bill again contradicts PPVFR Act for the
3
period of exclusive marketing rights. While this is
only 15 years for annual or biennial crops and 18 years
for perennial crops under the PPVFR Act, the Seeds
Bill, in two terms, offers total period of 20 and 24
years, respectively.
A provision in 2004 edition of the Bill, which allowed
assessment of agronomic performance of varieties to
accredited private sector organizations was widely
criticized for it was like sportspersons are asked to
their own doping test. The PSCA recommended that
such trail should be conducted only by the accredited
government/semi-government/autonomous
organizations, such as the ICAR and SAUs. While
this was complied with in the 2008 edition of Seeds
Bill, the 2010 edition backtracked to allow accredited
private organizations.
Another case of similar backtracking is on PSCA
recommendation that State Seed Testing Laboratories
shall be established only in 'Government or semi-
Government sector'. From its compliance in 2008
edition, the 2010 edition reverted back to allowing
such laboratories in non-Government sector'. In both
these cases, compliance with PSCA
recommendations is in larger public interest.
The compensation clause had drawn wide criticism
for linking it with Consumer Protection Act, 1986. the
PSCA reviewed this clause and recommended that
compensation provisions should be included in the
Bill itself and such designated institutional
arrangement established by the Government either as
Compensation Committee or Tribunals or Fast Track
Court, etc and compensation should be awarded
within 30 days of the filing of the claim. While the
2010 edition of the Bill has introduced Compensation
Committee, it is silent on vital details such as, how
fast farmers are paid compensation, whether the
Compensation Committee will be there in each state,
what principles are used to determine volume of
compensation, who is the Appellate Authority, etc. It
is essential that these and other aspects are included in
the Bill and not left to bureaucratic determinations.
The clauses on offences and penalty take the air out of
this Bill. Indian seed trade has honest and 'fly by night'
business parties. Notwithstanding the compensation
provision, the impact of offences such as the supply of
poor seeds would severely damage the fragile farm
4 Kisan Ki Awaaz
economy and livelihood of Indian farmers. This
singular reason justifies stringent punishment to
offences under this Bill. But the punishment
prescribed for serious offences such as stocking and
selling spurious or misbranded or unregistered seeds,
illegal seed import, and obstructing the due authority
from discharging their duty is only petty fines between
Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000, which could be made good
from only a small fraction of illegally earned profit.
The Billignores the enhanced punishment
recommended by the PSCA for these offences with
fine between Rs.50,000 and Rs. two lakhs, or with
prison term up to three month or with both. For other
offences such as furnishing false information relating
to genetic purity, supplying spurious seed or spurious
transgenic variety, the PSCA recommended enhanced
punishment with fine between Rs.2 lakhs and Rs ten
lakhs or prison term between three months to one year,
or both.
The PSCA also recommended a new sub-clause to
hand out enhanced punishment for repeated
convictions with prison term between one year and
three years or with fine between Rs two lakhs and Rs
twenty lakhs, or both. The official unwillingness to
comply with recommendations of PSCA exposes its
intent to make this Bill a rubber toy to seed industry.
On the legal liability of senior officials of any seed
company, which had committed an offence under this
Bill, it says that any such officers shall also be deemed
to be guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded
against and punished accordingly, only on proving
that the offence has been committed with the consent
or connivance of, or negligence on the part of the
officer. Having prosecuted with such offences, the
burden of proof on the innocence of these officials
should be left with the company itself.
Although the present edition of Seeds Bill has released
farmer seed system from its clutches and also restored
farmers' rights except the right to benefit sharing, a
corporate hand is seen behind governmental
resistance in complying with some of the important
recommendations of the PSCA and crafting this Bill in
harmony with other domain laws and to render it a
healthy law to serve the Indian farmers and agriculture
better. All hopes on completing this unfinished task
are now with the Indian Parliament.
July - 2010
 Study: Quality of Israeli sperm down 40% in past decade
Cause of decline unknown, but may be linked to children and
pregnant women's exposure to local contaminants.
*Ofri Ilani
T he quality of Israeli sperm has declined
alarmingly in the last decade, according to
recent research conducted at Jerusalem's
Hadassah University Hospital, Mount Scopus.
The cause for the decline is not known, but it's believed
by some researchers to be connected to the exposure of
children and pregnant women to hormones and other
contaminants in food and water.
Conducted by Dr. Ronit Haimov-Kokhman, the study
showed a 40-percent decline in the concentration of
sperm cells among the country's sperm donors from
2004 to 2008, compared to those of donors from 1995
to 1999. Hadassah's sperm bank is now turning away
two-thirds of potential donors because of low-quality
sperm, as opposed to one-third in the past
. decline in sperm counts and chemicals in the
Haimov-Kokhman's research is to be presented today
at a conference of the Israeli Society of Fertility
Investigation in Tel Aviv.
Kokhman said the study was carried out to test the
theory of the director of Hadassah Hospital's sperm
bank, Ruth Har-Nir, that sperm quality was in decline.
The research confirmed that in 10 years, the average
concentration of sperm among donors declined from
106 million cells per cubic centimeter to 67 million per
cubic centimeter. The rate of sperm motility has also
declined: from 79 to 67 percent, although the profile of
donors did not change over that period; they are still
young, healthy and do not smoke.
According to Haimov-Kokhman, the quality of sperm
has declined in most Western countries, but in Israel it
has been particularly rapid.
"If we keep going at this rate, a decline of 3 million
cubic centimeters of sperm cells per year, we'll reach
an average of 20 million in 2030. The World Heath
Organization defines this as fertility impairment."
Studies showing a decline in sperm quality began to be
published worldwide more than a decade ago, along
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
with research indicating a rise in the rate of defects in
the male reproductive system.
In Israel, too, a study was published about a year ago,
showing an increase of about 30 percent in defects in
the male reproductive system. In addition, in the past
decade, the number of cases of testicular cancer has
doubled.
A number of chemicals in the ground and in drinking
water have been identified as impacting hormone
levels and secondary sexual characteristics. These
chemicals include plasticizers called phthalates, used
in food wrappings, cosmetics and a various
insecticides. Studies published in Britain have
highlighted a clear connection between continual
environment.
"I would suggest that a concentration of estrogen in the
water is a cause of change, Haimov-Kokhman says,
noting that hormones in the ground come from both
human and animal waste that reach the aquifer via
sewage. "The ground is full of estrogen that produces
estrogen-saturated fruits, vegetables and plants.”
A study published in Israel two years ago revealed that
the high level of female hormones in a stream near Beit
She'an, apparently originating from women swimmers
who were taking birth-control pills, caused fish to
develop female characteristics. However, the
researchers say that the level of hormones in the
country's main waterways is negligible, and cannot be
the source of impairment of the male reproductive
system.
"While it's true that the evidence is only circumstantial,
even the connection between smoking and lung cancer
took a generation to prove," Haimov-Kokhman notes.
Http://www.haaretz.com/print-
edition/news/study-quality-of-israeli-sperm-down-
40-in-past-decade-1.275772
5
 Europe and India Push to Seal Free-Trade Deal
“Our domestic market is shrinking so our
boys have to go for Asia, particularly India.”
*Raphael Minder and Tom Redburn
MADRID - June 22, 2010 With global trade negotiations
stalled, India and the European Union are pressing to
complete a bilateral free-trade agreement in the autumn
that is intended to triple their 53 billion euro ($66 billion)
trade flow within five years. After nine rounds of
negotiations, India and Europe are closing in on such a
free-trade agreement, Anand Sharma, the Indian minister
of commerce and industry, said in an interview. Mr.
Sharma said that he would meet with the European trade
commissioner, Karel De Gucht, in September and that “we
hope that both of us will be able to reach an agreement.”
Both sides are aiming for a framework agreement in time
for a Europe-India summit meeting in Brussels, scheduled
for October.
Europe and India started their trade negotiations in 2007,
but talks initially made only slow progress. Given the
impasse in the Doha world trade talks, however, countries
have renewed their focus on bilateral deals as a less
ambitious but useful proxy for increasing trade flows.
Europe signed separate free-trade agreements last month
with a group of Central American countries, as well as Peru
and Colombia.
Mr. Sharma was speaking on the sidelines of an India
business conference in Madrid sponsored by Horasis, a
global networking group based in Geneva. His speech
coincided with the start of a visit to India by Catherine
Ashton, the European Union's new foreign policy chief,
also meant to prepare the ground for the summit meeting in
Brussels.
“The willingness is definitely there, and both sides are now
putting a lot of effort into completing the work on the
remaining issues so that the E.U.-India summit in the
autumn can give the final push for concluding this deal,
which we do think is possible,” said John Clancy, a trade
spokesman for the European Union. “We won't reach a
multilateral agreement this year, but the E.U.-India
bilateral agreement is much advanced,” Rajan Bharti
Mittal, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, said at the Madrid conference.
Such an agreement, he added, would be “beneficial to both
sides.” European companies are increasing their presence
in emerging markets like India in part to offset sluggish
domestic growth. That is also true for Spanish companies
that have traditionally focused on former Latin American
colonies rather than on Asia.
6 Kisan Ki Awaaz
“If an industrial group thinks that it doesn't have to be in
India, it's making a real strategic mistake,” said Germán
Lorenzo, the Asia-Pacific managing director of the
Mondragon Corporation, a Spanish conglomerate that
recently bought land in India. “Our domestic market is
shrinking so our boys have to go for Asia, particularly
India.” Silvia Iranzo, the Spanish secretary for trade,
conceded that her country's trade and investment
exchanges with India had so far “not been at the height of
our economic scale.” She added: “Spain is going through
economic difficulties so we are putting in place policies of
internationalization to help our companies overcome the
crisis, and these policies inevitably involve India.”
India is expected to spend as much as $50 billion in the next
five years to modernize its military equipment, but barriers
to foreign investment in this sector were underlined
recently. The Indian government blocked an electronics
joint venture between European Aeronautic Defense and
Space and Larsen & Toubro, an Indian engineering
company. The concern was that EADS would breach the 26
percent equity ownership limit for foreign investors in the
sector.
But Thomas Homberg, vice president of EADS, insisted
Tuesday that “definitely we haven't given up” on the joint
venture. Facing such hurdles in the “sensitive field” of
military contracting did not preclude EADS from
developing commercial aircraft manufacturing in India, as
EADS has done in China by setting up an Airbus assembly
line. “I would not say that this is impossible in India, not at
all,” he said.
European and other investors also want India to loosen
foreign ownership curbs in sectors like insurance and retail.
Other concerns include India's manufacturing of
counterfeit drugs and its unwillingness to include
procurement in a trade deal. Among outstanding issues for
India is greater access to Europes's highly subsidized
agricultural market, which also was a major obstacle in the
Doha talks. India also wants to make it easier for its work
force to work temporarily in Europe. When asked whether
the euro's decline could influence the pace of Indian
corporate investment in Europe, Mr. Sharma said, “I don't
think these decisions are taken because of currency
fluctuations.”
Googlegroups.com
July - 2010
From pesticides to GMO's : and nuclear hazards:
Lessons from Bhopal
* Dr. Vandana Shiva
Bhopal was the worst industrial disaster in human
history. 25,000 people dead and 5,00,000 injured.
And the injustice done to the victims of Bhopal over
the past 26 years will go down as the worst disaster in
jurisprudence in human history.
The gas leak in Bhopal that killed thousands in
December, 1984 was from the Union Carbide
pesticide plant which manufactured “Carabayl”
(trade name “sevin”) a pesticide used largely in
cotton. It was in fact because of the Bhopal tragedy
and the tragedy of extremist violence in Punjab, that I
decided to promote non-violent organic farming,
which led to the founding of Navdanya.
In 1984 I woke up to the fact that agriculture had
became like war. Pesticides were war chemicals,
deployed to agriculture when the war ended.
Pesticides kill. And that is why Union Carbides
Pesticide plant became a killer in Bhopal when there
was a leak.
I also realized that we do not need toxic pesticides that
kill humans and other species which maintain the web
of life. Pesticides do not control pests, they create
pests by killing beneficial species. We have safer,
non-violent alternatives such as Neem. That is why at
the time of the Bhopal disaster I started a campaign
“No more Bhopals, plant a Neem”.
The Neem campaign led to challenging the Biopiracy
of Neem in 1994, when I found that another US
multinational, W.R. Grace, had patented the Neem for
use as pesticide and fungicide and was setting up a
Neem oil extraction plant in Tumkur in Karnataka.
We fought the Biopiracy case for 11 years, and were
eventually successful in striking down the Biopiracy
patent.
Meantime, the old pesticide industry was mutating
into the biotechnology and genetic engineering
industry. While genetic engineering was promoted as
an alternative to pesticides the opposite is time Bt
cotton was introduced to end pesticide use. But Bt
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
cotton has failed to control the Boll worm and has
instead created major new pests, leading to an increase
in pesticide use. And the high costs of GM seeds and
pesticides are pushing farmers into debt. Indebted
farmers are committing suicide.
If one adds the 200,000 farmers suicides in India to the
25,000 killed in Bhopal, we are witnessing a massive
corporate genocide the killing of people by design
just for super profits. And to maintain these super
profits, lies are told about how without pesticides and
GMO's there will be no food.
Infact, our experience in Navdanya, and the
conclusions of IAASTD (International Assessment of
Agricultural Science and Technology for
Development) undertaken by the UN, shows that
ecologically organic agriculture produces more food
and better food at lower cost than either chemical
agriculture or GMO's.
The agrochemical industry and its new avatar, the
biotechnology industry, do not merely distort and
manipulate knowledge, science and public policy.
They also manipulate law and the justice system. The
reason justice has been denied to the victims of Bhopal
is because corporations want to escape from liability.
Freedom from liability is in fact the real meaning of
“free-trade”.
Bhopal has been systematically used since 1984 to
give a signal to corporations that they will be free of
liability. The tragedy of Bhopal is dual.
First that a toxic gas leak killed thousands in 1984.
Second the Bhopal disaster happened precisely when
corporations were seeking deregulation and freedom
from liability through the instruments of “free trade”
“trade liberalization” and “globalization”, both
through bilateral pressure, and through Uruguay
Round of GATT which led to the creation of W.T.O.
Since, 1985, Dupont had been attempting to relocate a
hazardous Nylon 6.6 plant from the U.S to the
7
picturesque state of Goa. It was to be established at a
cost of Rs 600 crore to produce 18,500 tonnes of
Nylon 6.6 per annum. They were forced to give up
their plans and move to Tamil Nadu due to sustained
agitation launched by the villagers of the area where
the factory was to be located.
The House Committee of the Goa Assembly set up to
look at the environmental implications of the Nylon
6.6 plant stated that “it would be an ill-advised move
to allow large chemical industries discharging even
their 'treated' effluents in our eco-rich and virgin
rivers have to safeguard our rivers against any
conceivable environmental and pollution threat…
While deciding on the establishment of large
chemical industries in a small relatively densely
populated and socio-economical rich state as ours, we
should consider not only the statistical probability of a
possible industrial accident but also the disastrous
danger to humans and ecology that may result from
such an accident.
It is also imperative to realize that in a tiny state like
Goa, any large capital intensive industry is bound to
consume/utilize a very significant percentage of
available natural resources and infrastructural
facilities, but in turn, contribute negligibly to the local
economy.
The Federal Ministry of Environment also did not
give clearance to Du Pont. However, in mid
December 1991, Gaza Feketekutty, the US Trade
Representative made a special trip to India to put
pressure on the government to give clearance to Du
Pont.
Key officials in the US government gave hints that Du
Pont was being treated as a test case for the new trade
liberalization policies. On 1st January, 1992, the
Cabinet cleared the project.
Then under the guise of public purpose, the Central
Government acquired grazing land for the Du Pont
plant, and authorized building work to commence,
without local Panchayat consultation. This was
possible under the Industrial Development Act, which
empowers governments to grant special favours to
industry in the interests of development.
8 Kisan Ki Awaaz
However, people did not accept Du Pont plant.
Protests were initiated and an Anti-Du Pont
Committee was formed.
People were arrested repeatedly during protests. At
its monthly meeting, the Panchayat resolved
unanimously that local public opinion should be
sought prior to granting Du Pont permission to
continue with its development.
In brazen defiance of the Panchayat's decision, Du
Pont's construction programme continued unabated
whilst the Panchayat was still considering the pending
application. Anticipating that the Director of
Panchayats, a government employee, would not
uphold the local Panchayat's decision, people
organized a blockade, Du Pont representatives and
local police attached the people's movement.
One youth Nilesh Naik was shot at point blank range
and many others were injured in clashes with the
police. Even the Chief Minister was forced to admit,
“if the people do not want the project, how can we
force it”.
Denying justice in the Bhopal case was a
conditionality for the Du Pont investment. And this
conditionality has been used at every step since 1984
to free corporations of liability. Injustice for Bhopal
has been used to tell corporations that they can get
away with murder.
This is what senior politicians communicated to
DOW. This is what the US-India CEC forum stated on
June 11, 2010 in the context of the call from across
India for justice for Bhopal.
As the Hindu reports (June 12, 2010) Bhopal is being
seen as a “road block and impediment to trade”. “The
recommendations include removing road blocks to
commercial trade by (India), and adoption of a nuclear
liability regime”.
Just as Bhopal victims were paid a mere Rs 12,000
(approximately $ 250) each, the proposed nuclear
liability Bill also seeks to put a ceiling on liability of
our operation of a Nuclear Power Plant in case of a
nuclear accident. Once again people can be killed but
corporations should not have to pay.
July - 2010
People's lives become the subsidy for the growth of a
toxic economy.
There has also been an intense debate in India on
GMO's. An attempt was made by Monsanto/Mahyco
to introduce Bt-Brinjal in 2009. As a result of public
hearings across the country, a moratorium has been
put on its commercialization. Immediately after the
moratorium a bill was introduced for a Biotechnology
Regulatory Authority of India which does not only
leave the biotechnology industry free of liability, it
has a clause enabling the government of arresting the
fining those of us who question the need and safety of
GMO's.
From pesticides to GMO's to nuclear, from 1984 to
2010, there are two lessons we can draw from Bhopal.
One is a lesson on technology. Corporations
introduce hazardous technologies like pesticides and
GMO's for profits, and profits alone.
We do not need pesticides. We do not need GMO's
We do not need nuclear deal. Bhopal stands as a light
house and a warning to stop the corporate drive for
imposing unnecessary toxics and hazards on society.
The second lesson of Bhopal is related to trade.
Corporations are seeking to expand markets, and
locate hazardous and environmentally costly
technologies to countries like India.
While they seek to globalize production they do not
want to globalize justice and rights. The difference in
the treatment of Union Carbide and DOW in the
context of Bhopal, and of BP in the context of the oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico shows how an apartheid is
being created.
The devaluation of life of Third World People and
ecosystems is built into the project of globalization.
Globalization leads to the outsourcing of pollution
and hazardous. And this is at the heart of
globalization as an economies of genocide.
Lawrence Summers who was the Bank's Chief
Economist and is now chief economic advisor to the
Obama government, was responsible for the 1992
World Development Report which was devoted to the
economics of the environment had actually suggested
that it makes economic sense to shift polluting
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
industries to the Third World countries.
In a memo dated 12.12.91 to senior World Bank staff,
the Chief Economist wrote, “just between you and me,
shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more
migration of the dirty industries to the LDC?”
Summers had justified his economic logic of
increasing pollution in the Third World on three
grounds.
Firstly, since wages are low in the Third World,
economic costs of pollution arising from increased
illness and death are least in the poorest countries.
According to Mr Summers, the logic “of relocation of
pollutants in the lowest wage country is impeccable
and we should face up to that”.
Secondly, since in large parts of the Third World,
pollution is still low, it makes economic sense to Mr
Summers to introduce pollution.
“I've always thought”, he says, “that countries in
Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is
probably vastly inefficiently low compared to Los
Angeles or Mexico City”.
Finally, since the poor are poor, they cannot possibly
worry about environmental problems. “The concern
over an agent that causes a one in a million change in
the odds of prostrate cancer is obviously going to be
much higher in a country where the people survive to
get prostrate cancer than in a country where under five
mortality is 200 per thousand”.
Thus, Lawrence Summers has recommended the
relocation of hazardous and polluting industry to the
Third World because in narrow economic terms, life is
cheaper in the poorer countries.
The economists' logic might value life differentially in
the rich North and the poor South. However, all life is
precious. It is equally precious to the rich and the
poor, the white and the black, to men and women.
Bhopal must teach us to reclaim our universal and
common humanity and build an Earth Democracy in
which all are equal, and corporations are not allowed
to destroy democracy and get away with crimes
against people and the planet.
9
 Monsanto's Glyphosate Problems:
Scientist Warns of Dire Consequences with Widespread Use
* Ken Roseboro, ed.
The Organic & Non-GMO Report featured an
interview with Robert Kremer, an adjunct professor in
the Division of Plant Sciences at the University of
Missouri, whose research showed negative
environmental impacts caused by glyphosate, the main
ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, which is
used extensively with Roundup Ready genetically
modified crops.
The following interview is with another scientist, Don
Huber, who recently retired from Purdue University,
who has also documented negative environmental
impacts from glyphosate.
The widespread use of glyphosate is causing negative
impacts on soil and plants as well as possibly animal
and human health. These are key findings of Don
Huber, emeritus professor of plant pathology, Purdue
University.
Compromise agricultural sustainability, animal
and human health
In a paper published in the European Journal of
Agronomy in October 2009, Huber and co-author G.S.
Johal, from Purdue's department of botany and plant
pathology, state that the widespread use of glyphosate
that we see today in agriculture in the United States can
"significantly increase the severity of various plant
diseases, impair plant defense to pathogens and
diseases, and immobilize soil and plant nutrients
rendering them unavailable for plant use."
Further, the authors state that glyphosate stimulates the
growth of fungi and enhances the virulence of
pathogens such as Fusarium and "can have serious
consequences for sustainable production of a wide
range of susceptible crops." The authors warn
"ignoring potential non-target detrimental side effects
of any chemical, especially used as heavily as
glyphosate, may have dire consequences for
agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-
productive, and plants less nutritious. To do otherwise
might well compromise not only agricultural
sustainability, but also the health and well-being of
10 Kisan Ki Awaaz
animals and humans."
Please tell me about your research with glyphosate.
Don Huber: I have been doing research on glyphosate
for 20 years. I began noticing problems when I saw a
consistent increase in "take-all" (a fungal disease that
impacts wheat) where glyphosate had been applied in a
previous year for weed control. I tried to understand
why there was an increase in disease with glyphosate.
I found that glyphosate has an effect on reducing
manganese in plants, which is essential to many plant
defense reactions that protect plants from disease and
environmental stress. Glyphosate can immobilize plant
nutrients such as manganese, copper, potassium, iron,
magnesium, calcium, and zinc so they are no longer
nutritionally functional.
Glyphosate kills weeds by tying up essential nutrients
needed to keep plant defenses active. Glyphosate
doesn't kill weeds directly but shuts down their defense
mechanisms so pathogens in the soil can mobilize and
kill the weeds. Glyphosate completely weakens the
plant, making it susceptible to soil borne fungal
pathogens.
That is one reason why we see an increase in plant
diseases. Glyphosate causes plants to be more
susceptible and greatly stimulates the virulence of
pathogens that kill plants.
How many plant diseases are linked to glyphosate?
DH: There has been a general increase in the number of
plant diseases in the last 15 to 18 years.
There are four primary soil fungi-Fusarium, Phythium,
Rhizoctonia, and Phytophthora- that become more
active with the use of glyphosate.
There has been an increase in take-all, Fusarium
diseases, such as head scab, Gibberella (Fusarium) in
corn, Pythium, Corynespora or root rot in soybeans,
crown rot in sugar beets, and bacterial and fungal
July - 2010
diseases. Fusarium head blight (which affects cereal
crops) is a disease that produces a mycotoxin that could
enter the food chain.
There are more than 40 diseases reported with use of
glyphosate, and that number keeps growing as people
recognize the association (between glyphosate and
disease).
Has research confirmed the link between
glyphosate and Fusarium?
DH: There is plenty of data to show that, and it raises
concerns about toxins in food.
Can you give an example of a specific crop that has
been negatively impacted by glyphosate?
DH: Last summer I visited farms that had typical
glyphosate damage. I received a call from a potato seed
farmer in Minnesota who grows 1000 acres of seed
potatoes. There was so much glyphosate in the potato
tubers from a previous crop of Roundup Ready
soybeans that the potatoes can't be used as seed and
could not be certified.
Proponents of glyphosate say it is environmentally
benign. Would you agree with that assessment?
DH: Absolutely not. That's an outright mistaken
notion. Glyphosate is the single most important
agronomic factor predisposing some plants to both
disease and toxins. These toxins can produce a serious
impact on the health of animals and humans.
Toxins produced can infect the roots and head of the
plant and be transferred to the rest of the plant. The
toxin levels in straw can be high enough to make cattle
and pigs infertile.
In your paper you say that "the introduction of such
an intense mineral chelator as glyphosate into the
food chain through accumulation in feed, forage,
and food, and root exudation into ground water,
could pose significant health concerns for animals
and humans and needs further evaluation." Could
you elaborate on this?
DH: Micronutrients such as manganese, copper,
potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc are
essential to human health. All of them can be reduced in
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
availability by glyphosate; mineral nutrients are less in
glyphosate treated plants. We are seeing a reduction in
nutrient quality (in food crops).
There are also reports of allergic reactions, such as
stomach lesions, produced by the Roundup Ready
(genetically modified) gene. These reactions need to be
studied; there needs to be a lot more information that we
don't have. This type of research has been prevented by
a lack of access to information.
What other impacts do you see caused by the
Roundup Ready gene?
DH: The gene will reduce micronutrient efficiency up
to 50% for zinc and manganese. It's very significant
unless the plant is supplemented with micronutrients.
This could also account for the yield drag (reported
with Roundup Ready crops).
Unfortunately, most researchers are forbidden to do
work in the area. They don't have access to isogenic
lines (conventional and Roundup Ready plant lines that
are otherwise genetically identical); the materials are
denied to researchers.
In your paper you recommend using as small a dose
of glyphosate as possible. Why is this?
DH: To my knowledge we've never had this much
reliance on one herbicide. It's hard to find an acre in the
US that hasn't had glyphosate applied on it in the last
three years.
We need to have judicious use of glyphosate and
remediate the damage that it does. If we continue to
abuse the use of glyphosate, it's just a matter of time
before we see more serious negative ramifications. We
will have increasing toxin levels (in crops), reduced
nutrient values, and the direct presence of glyphosate in
crops.
There are a lot of serious questions about the impacts of
glyphosate that we need answers for in order to
continue using this technology. I don't believe we can
ignore these questions any more if we want to ensure a
safe, sustainable food supply and abundant crop
production.
The Organic and Non-GMO Report, Posted June
14, 2010
11
India's biodiversity travails towards extinction
* Jaspal Singh Sidhu
T his year has been declared as the International
Year of Diversity. And as many as 192
countries, signatories to Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) commemorated 22 May
this year as International Day for Biological
Diversity.
In his context, observation of Dr S. Balaji, an Indian
Forest Service Officer is worth mentioning:”The two
hotspots of India-- Western Ghats and Himalayan
region-- which are the pool of genetic diversity, are
struggling for their existence. The climate change,
industrial effluents, loss of natural habitats and
increasing human greed are causing India's
biodiversity deterioration. An expert in biodiversity,
Dr Balaji says that biological estimates suggest that
the number of species may be 10 times those
described so far. Plant and animal species from major
families are still being discovered in rainforests.
Botanist Alvin Gentry estimates that 15,000-20,000
species of tropical flowering plants are yet to be
documented. So far, India is said to have 10-12 per
cent plant species of the world, around 8 per cent
mammals and 13 per cent birds. Globally, 1.4 million
life forms have been identified by science. And this
variability of life forms denoted diversity on earth
which is a vital source which needs to be conserved as
sustenance of life as such including that or human life.
The distinct life forms are interlinked,
interdependent and inter-complimentary. And, from
holistic view if erosion of some forms of life take
place, the others including human life cannot escape
unhurt and unaffected. Even variegated life forms
hold key to progress in medicine, agriculture, forestry
and other fields.
Dr Balaji remarks , “During the last 200 million years
about 100 species became extinct in each century due
to the natural evolutionary process. At the same time,
evolution ushered in new life forms that more than
compensated for those that were lost. Today, the
extinction rate is approximately 40,000 times higher
than this background rate due to human depredations.
For the first time an enormous proportion of terrestrial
12 Kisan Ki Awaaz
plant species that form the basis of land ecosystems
remains threatened. One-fifth of all plant species on
land face annihilation in the next 20 years. A
disappearing plant can take with it 10-30 dependent
species such as insects, higher animals and even other
plants. According to one estimate, we may already be
losing 100 species a day.
India is one of the world's 12 mega-biodiversity
centres, and the subcontinent one of the six Vavilovian
centres of origin of species. Some 45,000 plant
species and over 89,000 species of animals have been
documented here, comprising some 6.5 per cent of all
known wildlife.”
Scientists estimate the identified Indian faunas
diversity as having 2,500 fishes, 150 amphibians, 450
reptiles, 1,200 birds, 850 mammals and 68,000
insects. But referring to India's most threatened 'hot
spots'--the Eastern Himalayan region and the Western
Ghats, Professor M.S. Swaminathan, says both are
paradises of valuable genes but are inching towards
the status of 'Paradise Lost.' Since 10 per cent of its
wild flora and more of fauna are on the verge of
extinction. And so are the 80 species of mammals, 47
of birds, 15 of reptiles, three of amphibians and a large
number of moths, butterflies and beetles.
Interestingly, the main cause of threat to diversity is
human greed which knows no limits in the exiting
capitalistic system of economy dominating the world
and that which shapes the human thinking, ideology
and way of living . At present, the human beings uses
40 per cent of the planet's annual net photosynthesis
production. CBD reports says,” Loss and
fragmentation of natural habitats, over exploitation of
plant and animal species, the impact of exotics and
invasive alien species, industrial effluents, climate
change and, above all, the greed of man are causing
the erosion.”
The introduction of exotic species like transgenic
crops like Bt cotton and Bt brinjal can pose a threat to
indigenous diversity. Invasive alien species include
plants, animals and pathogens that are non-native to
July - 2010
an ecosystem and that may cause economic or
environmental harm or adversely affect human health.
Invasive alien species, CBD report says, have
contributed to nearly 40 per cent of all animal
extinction. Introduced fish species threaten to
decimate the diverse fish fauna of big African lakes.
Exotic weeds such as lantana and parthenium pose
forest management problems. All genetically
engineered varieties of plant species, particularly
what we call GM crops and foods, now being
developed, are bound to fatally disturb the existing
ecosystem which got evolved through natural of
selection and deletion over millions of years. Now, the
industry is out to make money at any costthe
ecosystem and the life attuned to nature over millions
of years must the first casualty.
In fact, the science, since the beginning has developed
in clash or confrontation with the nature. In other
worlds, the man wants to capture everything in his fist
and latest developments of science and technology
has gone to his head and forgets that the life could
sustain on this planet in compatibility with the Nature
and not in the confrontation. But, the present mode of
life, prompting consumerism is out to tame the nature
( through confrontation) for its perceived benefits or
luxurious style of living. In this context, we have to
view the developments in the wake of Green
Revolution or heralding of an era of mechanical
agriculture.
The new mode of farming has dispensed with the use
of animal power- bullocks and horses- which began
10,000 to 15,000 years ago and which has been
perfectly in tune with the nature. And, this advanced
agriculture brought in use of chemical fertilizers,
pesticides in its wake and entry of GM crops is the
latest weapon added to its armory. No doubt, the
advanced agriculture has vanished famines and
starvation deaths on the larger parts of the globe. And,
it has practically enabled five percent working
population of a developed country to produce food
and fiber for other 95 per cent population living in
towns and cities. But, how long, the man could sustain
this largely anti-nature activities?
This is a billion dollar question and forces every
sensitive mind to ponder over. And, this pondering
could be a spiritual yearning or a rational materialist
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
perception. But these two mutually agnostic and
inimical perception, invariably, converge at a point
how to amend or modify the way of living on this
planet that could be compatible with the nature or
what sort of life could be sustainable or how could
save the advanced civilization of the day from
traversing towards an inevitable catastrophe in the
near future?
Besides, the global warming and climate change pose
threats to plant and animal species as many organisms
are sensitive to carbon dioxide concentration in the
atmosphere that may lead to their disappearance. For
example. pesticide, ozone, sulphur and nitrogen
oxides being emitted by the industries contribute to
the degradation of natural ecosystems. Poaching of
wild animals, hunting of elephants for their tusks and
tigers for their skin could led to extinction of these
animals.
Dr Balaji succinctly projects that nature is beautifully
balanced with each little thing having its own place, its
duty and special utility. Ecosystem stability is a
compelling reason for preserving biodiversity. All
living organisms including pests are an internal part of
the biosphere and provide invaluable services. It is
interesting to note that several species of tropical
American ants manage the environment by
constructing nests, galleries and caves for fungi.
In order to multiply the mushrooms they (ants) eat,
these ants methodically practice a series of cultivation
processes. They prepare bed for cultivation by
collecting diverse organic debris like leaves, wood,
roots and tubers from outside and they tear up, grind,
and fashion into mushroom beds. And some other
species of ants live in association with a species of
aphids or mealy bug. This partnership is true form of
breeding. Agriculture and breeding are thus
elaborated forms of mutual ism which creates organic
material of the soil, necessary for farming.
In nutshell, preserving and conserving the invisible
and all compassing system of nature which is being
reflected in biodiversity is paramount need of the
hour. In conversing the biodiversity, we are actually
conserving the human life on the planet--- a first and
foremost concern of ours.
Jaspal.sdh@gmail.com
13
 Organic farming gives
Indian farmers greater financial security
Hyderabad, 15th June, 2010: A Greenpeace report
said the monetary benefits of organic cotton
farming are much greater than using the Genetically
Engineered variety that makes farmers more
vulnerable to financial collapse due to high debts
and increased costs of cultivation.
The report titled "Picking Cotton The choice
between organic and genetically-engineered cotton
for farmers in South India" shows that in the year
2009-10 farmers cultivating cotton through organic
practices earned 200% more net income than
farmers who grew Genetically Engineered cotton
[Bt cotton].
The Greenpeace report is a comparative analysis of
two methods of agriculture among cotton farmers in
Andhra Pradesh.
It not only shows the economic benefit of
ecological farming (in this case organic) but also
that Genetically Engineered (GE) cotton, despite
using many toxic pesticides, still has greater crop
loss to pests.
"Our study illustrates how farmers growing GE
cotton face high debts and high costs of cultivation,
becoming more vulnerable to financial collapses”,
said Dr Reyes Tirado, Scientist, Greenpeace
International, who authored the report.
Bt cotton1 farmers not only use 26 different
pesticides, including pesticides targeting pests that
the GE cotton is supposed to control, but also lose
financially due to their higher input costs.
In the region of Andhra Pradesh the cost of
cultivation is much higher for Bt cotton farmers.
The Bt cotton farmers incurred 65% higher debt
accumulated during 2008/09 and 2009/10 than the
non-Bt organic cotton farmers.
14 Kisan Ki Awaaz
The farmer distress in the state had lead to the
central government announcing a 5 year relief
package for farmers amounting to 20,000 crores in
the year 2008.
"It is preposterous that on the one hand government
dolls out thousands of crores in the name of bringing
relief to farmers while on the other they permit and
promote Bt cotton cultivation and ensure that the
farmer can never escape the debt treadmill.” said Dr
G.V Ramanjaneyalu, Executive Director of Centre
for Sustainable Agriculture who was present at the
report release.
The controversies around Bt cotton have finally
forced the Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee, the agency responsible for the
commercial release of GE crops in the country, to do
a review of its performance since 2002, the year it
was released.
"Bt cotton has only benefitted the multinational
seed giants like Monsanto who has earned 1580
crore Rupees as royalty from its patented Bt cotton
seed since its release" [1] said Rajesh Krishnan,
sustainable agriculture campaigner with
Greenpeace India.
He concluded that "Cotton farming that uses
ecological practices and avoids genetically
engineered seeds and agrochemicals is the most
beneficial for Indian farmers.”
Greenpeace is demanding that the Indian
government bans Bt cotton cultivation, takes an
active role in supplying sufficient quantity and
quality of non-Bt seeds and supports organic and
ecological cotton farming.
Http://greenpeace.in/safefood/news-
blog/organic-farming-gives-indian-farmers-
greater-financial-security/
July - 2010
 Polluted & poisonous water of Agra canal
damaging large area of Moong Crop
in Palwal (Haryana)

16 Kisan Ki Awaaz July - 2010

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x;s rks NksVk&e>ksyk lhekar xjhc fdlku rks feV gh bLrseky ns'k ds fy, dj lds ;g lcls cM+h pqukSrh gSA
tk;sxkA lkFk gh lkFk [ksr etnwjksa dk fo'kky leqnk; vkt Hkh Hkkjr dk 70 Qhlnh vkcknh xkao esa jgrk gSA
Hkw[k&xjhch] foLFkkiu dh yiVksa dk vkSj xaHkhj f'kdkj gks
tk;sxkA og lekt esa thfor gksdj Hkh ftank ugha [ksrh fdlkuh ls gh yxHkx 74 Qhlnh yksxksa dks iw.kZ vkSj
dgyk;saxsA v/kZ jkstxkj feyrk gSA c<+rs gq, lhekar vkSj y?kq tksrksa dh
la[;k fdlkuksa ds lhekarhdj.k dh vksj b'kkjk djrh gSA
[Ksrh ds daiuhdj.k ds pyrs ns'k esa d`f"k O;kikj djus 1970&71 esa lhekar tksrksa dh la[;k 3-568 djksM+ Fkh tks
okyh daifu;ksa dks c<+kok feysxkA oSls Hkh mUgsa c<+kok fey 2000&01 esa nksxqus ls Hkh vf/kd c<+dj 7-612 djksM+ gks
gh jgk gSA okLro esa d`f"k O;kikj djus okyh daifu;ka x;h gSA y?kq tksrksa dh la[;k 1-343 djksM+ ls c<+dj 2-282
djksM+ gks x;h gSA lhekar vkSj y?kq tksrksa okys fdlku ns'k
16 Kisan Ki Awaaz July - 2010
djksM+ gks x;h gSA lhekar vkSj y?kq tksrksa okys fdlku ns'k
ds 82 izfr'kr fdlku gSa vkSj budh [ksrh dks fdl izdkj ls
vkfFkZd :i ls l{ke cuk;k tk;s ;g gekjh igy dk eq[;
dsUnz gksuk pkfg,A d`f"k tux.kuk 2000&01 ds vuqlkj
ns'k esa vkSlr tksr dk vkdkj 1-39 gsDVs;j gSA fofHkUu
jkT;ksa esa bldk vkdkj vyx&vyx gSA
15 izeq[k jkT;ksa esa ls ikap jkT;ksa esa vkSlr tksr 1 gsDVs;j
ls Hkh de gSA dsjy jkT; esa lcls de 0-24 de gSA blds
ckn Øe'k% fcgkj esa 0-58 gsDVs;j vkSj if'pe caxky esa 0-
82 gsDVs;j gSA vle] mM+hlk ,oa vka/kz izns'k esa vkSlr tksr
dk vkdkj jk"Vªh; vkSlr ls de gSA
MijksDr rF;ksa ls vklkuh ls vuqeku yxk;k tk ldrk gS
fd fo'kky xzkeh.k {ks= vkSj Hkkjr dh tula[;k dk yxHkx
nks frgkbZ fgLlk vktknh ds 62 lky ds ckn Hkh O;kid
cqfu;knh ifjorZu ds fy, cslczh ls bartkj dj jgk gSA o"kZ
2007 ds vkadM+ksa ds vuqlkj ns'k ds 533 [kjc&vjcifr;ksa
ds ikl dqy 12 yk[k 32 gtkj 135 djksM+ :i;s dh nkSyr
FkhA
ogha nwljh rjQ 2004&05 ds v/;;u ds vk/kkj ij
dkaxszlh lkaln izks- vtqZu lsu xqIrk vk;ksx us crk;k fd
ns'k dh 77 Qhlnh turk vFkkZr 83 djksM+ 65 yk[k yksxksa
dh jkstkuk dh vkenuh 20 :i;s ls de gSA 2007 ds
ljdkjh vkadMksa ds eqrkfcd eqds'k vackuh ds gtkjksa djksM+
:i;s dh lkykuk vkenuh gSA ysfdu blds vfrfjDr
viuh daiuh ds ps;jeSu dh gSfl;r esa os ru[okg Hkh ysrs
gSaA mudh izfrekg ru[okg 2 djksM+ 54 yk[k :i;s gSA
,sls gh 578 cM+s m|ksxifr vf/kdkjh izfro"kZ 1497 djksM+
dh ru[okg ysrs gS vkSj 230 yksx nks djksM+ ls vf/kd dh
ru[okg ysrs gSaA ns'k esa nkSyr dk bruk vleku forj.k
pkSdk nsus okyk gh ugha oju lkspus ij etcwj djrk gS fd
lkekftd vU;k; dh Hkh dksbZ lhek gksxhA vleku vkfFkZd
fLFkfr;ksa ds pyrs D;k bl ckr dh vko';drk ugha gS fd
ns'k dh nkSyr dk U;kf;d forj.k fd;k tk;sA
iwjs ns'k dh tula[;k dk 9 izfr'kr vkfnoklh vkSj
tutkfr;ka gSaA og ns'k ds laiw.kZ HkkSxksfyd {ks= ds 15
izfr'kr {ks= esa fuokl djrs gSaA og igkM+ksa] taxyksa vkSj
izd`fr ds xksn esa xqtj&clj djus okys yksx gSaA ftu {ks=ksa
esa os jgrs gSa og [kfut laink] ouLifr] dherh iRFkjksa vkSj
tho tarqvksa ls Hkjiwj gSaA ijUrq vkfnoklh tutkfr ds yksx
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
izkd`frd laink ds fgLlsnkj ugha ek= [kkeks'k rkek'kk;h
cu dj jg x;s gSaA ns'k esa dqy 700 tutkfr;ka gSaA
ljdkjksa ds uhfr;ksa ds pyrs 70 tutkfr;ka [kRe gksus dh
fLFkfr esa gSaA dsUnz vkSj jkT; ljdkjsa cgqjk"Vªh; daifu;ksa]
ns'kh&fons'kh xBtksM+ dh futh dEifu;ksa] dkiksZjsV ?kjkuksa
dks m|ksx LFkkfir djus ds uke ij vkfnokfl;ksa ,oa
tutkfr;ksa dks mtkM+ dj mudh tehu ns jgh gSA mtkM+s
gq, yksxksa dh iquokZl dh lEekutd ,oa vFkZiw.kZ dksbZ
;kstuk Hkh ugha gSA
vktknh ds ckn izxfr'khy Hkwfelq/kkj ykxw fd;s tkus dh
dksbZ fof'k"V igy ugha dh tk ldhA dsjy] if'pe caxky]
f=iqjk esa Hkwfe lq/kkj ykxw dj [ksr etnwjksa dks vkSj xzkeh.k
etnwjksa dks dqN U;k; fn;k tk ldkA vf/kdka'k jkT; Hkwfe
lq/kkj ls cprs gSaA Qyr% lekt ds 'kksf"kr] ihfM+r ftuesa
vf/kdka'k vuqlwfpr tkfr] fiNM+h tkfr vkSj vkfnoklh gSa
og vkt lkekftd vkSj vkfFkZd gkfl;s ij <dsy fn;s x;s
gSaA og vkt xjhch js[kk ds uhps thus ij foo'k gSaA fcgkj esa
Mh- ca/kksik/;k; vk;ksx us Hkwfe lq/kkj laca/kh flQkfj'kksa dks
fcgkj ljdkj ds lkeus j[kk ijUrq ljdkj us viuk gkFk
[khap fy;k gSA
vxj ljdkj bl deh'ku dh flQkfj'kksa ij dke djs rks
xzkeh.k x`gfoghuksa dks okl Hkwfe] gncanh ls Qkfty] Hkwnku
vkSj ljdkjh tehu dk forj.k] ipkZ/kkfj;ksa dks tehu ij
dCtk vkSj cVkbZnkjksa ds csn[kyh dh lqj{kk laHko gks ldrh
gSA
Hkwfe lq/kkj ds }kjk ge xkao ls [ksfrgj etnwjksa] xjhc
fdlkuksa ds 'kgj dh vksj iyk;u dks jksd ldrs gSaA vkt
,d vuqeku ds vuqlkj 7 ls 9 izfr'kr ds chp xkao ls
'kgjksa dh vksj gj o"kZ iyk;u gks jgk gSA Hkwfe lq/kkj vkt
,d Toyar jk"Vªh; drZO; gSA fdlku] [ksr etnwj ,oa
vlaxfBr etnwjksa dks lokZf/kd dfBu pqukSfr;ksa Hkjs oDr ls
xqtjuk iM+ jgk gS vkSj blls fuiVus ds fy, O;kid ,drk
cukdj la?k"kZ ds eSnku esa viuh fgQktr ds fy, mrjuk
gksxkA
xkao] fdlku] [ksrh vkSj [ksr etnwj dh fgQktr ls gh
Hkkjr ds d`f"k {ks= dh fgQktr dh tk ldrh gSA ;g vkbus
ds lkeus cSBdj da?kh dk<+us dk oDr ;k frrfy;ksa ls izse
dk nkSj ugha gSA
* Hkkjrh; dE;qfuLV ikVhZ ds jk"Vªh; lfpo vkSj
vf[ky Hkkjrh; fdlku lHkk ds jk"Vªh; egklfpo
17
 “MERIGOLD A POOR MAN'S SAFFRON”
* Tajinder Singh Wazir

F or crop diversification and better yields

Commercial Floriculture in India is
increasingly being considered as a highly
remunerative economic activity by small and
marginal farmers.
in a year with the suitable varieties as per the
location.

N.P.K fertilizers and manures should be mixed with

the soil after deep ploughing, however, nitrogen
should be applied at the time of hoeing which helps
The growth in this sector is reflected in increasing in vegetative growth.
domestic market and exports.
The most important activity during growing season
The beautiful flowers of Marigold add cheer and of the crop is pinching after 40 days of planting for
brightness to more and
any garden. vigorous yield.
Growers claim
that these In Jammu
flowers are Division three
easy to grow, varieties like
and occupies a Pusa Narangi
prime position g a n d h a ,
because of their C a l c u t t a
uses age as one G a n d h a ,
of the most Marigold F1
devotional Hybrid (Orange
ones. /yellow) have
been introduced
In Jammu-the b y t h e
city of temples, Directorate of
more than 200 Floriculture,
small and big Jammu.
vendors' sales
Marigold every day in the temples and people of all Due to the collective efforts of Jammu Kashmir
sorts of religions use them. Flower Growers Association, Floriculture
Department and SKUAST, the overwhelming
It may be astonishing to all of us that Marigold 's response is coming from farming community and
annual market in Jammu is touching about Rs. farmers practically adopted this crop in a bigger
10.00 crores. Besides its use in religious, social and way in various parts of Jammu.
national festivals Marigold is having the property to
control the Plant Nematodes and is also used as a Farmers from Ramban to Kathua have
best pest replant in the vegetable fields. enthusiastically adopted it and earn four times better
earnings as that of from their traditional crops, Even
Marigold flower can be planted in any type of well in Kandi ( Rain fed) belts of Jammu the growers
drained soils having PH 6.5 to 7.5 with sufficient have registers their massive production by growing
irrigation. this hardy crop and earn better yield with their own
propagated seeds and indigenous technology.
In Jammu district the crop can be cultivated 3 times
18 Kisan Ki Awaaz July - 2010
For crop diversification and better yields the soil after deep ploughing, however, nitrogen
Commercial Floriculture in India is increasingly should be applied at the time of hoeing which helps
being considered as a highly remunerative in vegetative growth.
economic activity by small and marginal farmers.
The most important activity during growing season
The growth in this sector is reflected in increasing of the crop is pinching after 40 days of planting for
domestic market and exports. more and vigorous yield.
The beautiful flowers of Marigold add cheer and In Jammu Division three varieties like Pusa
brightness to any garden. Growers claim that these Narangi gandha, Calcutta Gandha, Marigold F1
flowers are easy to grow, and occupies a prime Hybrid (Orange /yellow) have been introduced by
position because of their uses age as one of the most the Directorate of Floriculture, Jammu.
devotional ones.
Due to the collective efforts of Jammu Kashmir
In Jammu-the city of temples, more than 200 small F l o w e r
a n d b i g G r o w e r s
vendors' sales Association,
Marigold every Floriculture
day in the Department
temples and and SKUAST,
people of all t h e
s o r t s o f overwhelming
religions use response is
them. coming from
f a r m i n g
It may be community and
astonishing to f a r m e r s
all of us that practically
Marigold 's adopted this
annual market crop in a bigger
in Jammu is way in various
touching about parts of Jammu.
Rs. 10.00
crores. Besides Farmers from
its use in religious, social and national festivals Ramban to Kathua have enthusiastically adopted it
Marigold is having the property to control the Plant and earn four times better earnings as that of from
Nematodes and is also used as a best pest replant their traditional crops, Even in Kandi ( Rain fed)
in the vegetable fields. belts of Jammu the growers have registers their
massive production by growing this hardy crop and
Marigold flower can be planted in any type of well earn better yield with their own propagated seeds
drained soils having PH 6.5 to 7.5 with sufficient and indigenous technology.
irrigation. In some villages women farmers have made their
Self help Group and have shown their keen interest
In Jammu district the crop can be cultivated 3 times with this less labourious crops to empower them
in a year with the suitable varieties as per the selves.
location.
No doubt its fraganence has reached to far flung area
N.P.K fertilizers and manures should be mixed with

July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 19

 The fight against Monsanto in Haiti
HAITI, On June 4th, 10,000 peasant farmers gathered
in protest in Haiti to burn more than 400 tons of hybrid
corn and vegetable seeds donated to the country by
Monsanto.
This was a hugely symbolic gesture and one that the
rest of the world needs to listen to. Haiti is asking for
our help in establishing a local, sustainable food
system from the rubble that the country currently lies
in.
This is our opportunity to raise our voices in protest
against Monsanto's involvement in the fragile
beginnings of true food sovereignty in Haiti.
I was lucky enough to attend a Brooklyn church's
community meeting. I heard peasant farmer Leader
Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of
Papay (MPP) share the concerns of Haitian peasants
regarding Monsanto's donation hybrid seeds.
I was greatly moved by his words and I want to share
them with you. Below are the highlights from his
speech. Please note that the quotes are not exact as
Jean-Baptiste was speaking in Creole and his words
were translated into English.
 Hybrid seeds are a poison gift. They don't
reproduce, and therefore cannot be shared among a
community. Haiti does not yet view seeds as a
commodity like the US does. These hybrid seeds
threaten the cultural fabric in Haiti because they break 
the cycle of food sharing.
 Jean-Baptiste believes that Monsanto has
taken the opportunity of the recent earthquake in Haiti sustainable food systems.
to intentionally introduce the seeds and destroy
Haitian agriculture, creating a dependency on
Monsanto each season for new seeds.
 If the Haitian government accepts Monsanto's
seeds, rather than trying to build a system of food
sovereignty, the Haitian farmer will become a day
laborer, working for industrial farms. This would
completely transform the economy to an industrial
20 Kisan Ki Awaaz
system instead of working to support farmers through
a local economic system.
 "We are an occupied country and want to
recover our freedom, starting with food sovereignty.
The struggle against Monsanto is not a small thing -
they are extremely powerful. We need to unite
ourselves - this is a global struggle.”
 "Haiti is essentially roadkill, and not even
roadkill that can serve as proper food. We are at the
point that the dogs and vultures are tearing us apart.
Companies like Monsanto are devouring what is left
of us at this point."
 "This is a country that is used to struggle. We
will fight and have the capacity for resistance,
particularly when the threat is to the very fabric of our
country. A large population of Haitians do not yet
understand the implications of the relationship with
Monsanto, many have never heard of the company
before. The first task is to educate. "
There were also three letters that we were asked to
sign. Please feel free to download, sign and send.
 To: Bill Clinton , urging him to ensure that
farmers have a central role in deciding how to boost
food production in Haiti, so that the country may feed
itself.
To: His Excellency Raymond Joseph , Haiti
Ambassador to the US, urging him to reject hybrid
seeds and to engage organizations of small farmers
about how to move forward in ways that support
 To: Rajiv Shah, Administrator , US Agency for
International Development, urging USAID to decline
the use of Monsanto's hybrid seeds in the WINNER
Project and to support small farmers in their efforts to
restore sustainable small scale agriculture.
SOURCE: HUFFINGTONPOST.COM
July - 2010
 Horror Of US Depleted Uranium In Iraq Threatens World
*James Denver
American Use Of DU is "A crime against humanity which may,
in the eyes of historians, rank with the worst atrocities of all time.
" US Iraq Military Vets "are on DU death row, waiting to die."

"I'm horrified. The people out there - the Iraqis, the
media and the troops - risk the most appalling ill
health. And the radiation from depleted uranium can
travel literally anywhere. It's going to destroy the lives
of thousands of children, all over the world. We all
know how far radiation can travel. Radiation from
Chernobyl reached Wales and in Britain you
sometimes get red dust from the Sahara on your car."
The speaker is not some alarmist doom-sayer. He is
Dr. Chris Busby, the British radiation expert , Fellow
of the University of Liverpool in the Faculty of
Medicine and UK representative on the European
Committee on Radiation Risk, talking about the best-
kept secret of this war: the fact that, by illegally using
hundreds of tons of depleted uranium (DU) against
Iraq ~ Britain and America have gravely endangered
not only the Iraqis but the whole world.
For these weapons have released deadly, carcinogenic
and mutagenic, radioactive particles in such
abundance that-whipped up by sandstorms and carried
on trade winds - there is no corner of the globe they
cannot penetrate-including Britain. For the wind has
no boundaries and time is on their side: the
radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years and
can cause cancer, leukemia, brain damage, kidney
failure, and extreme birth defects - killing millions of
every age for centuries to come. A crime against
humanity which may, in the eyes of historians, rank
with the worst atrocities of all time.
Yet, officially, no crime has been committed. For this
story is a dirty story in which the facts have been
concealed from those who needed them most. It is also
a story we need to know if the people of Iraq are to get
the medical care they desperately need, and if our
troops, returning from Iraq, are not to suffer as terribly
as the veterans of other conflicts in which depleted
uranium was used.
A Dirty Tyson
'Depleted' uranium is in many ways a misnomer. For
'depleted' sounds weak. The only weak thing about
depleted uranium is its price . It is dirt cheap, toxic,
waste from nuclear power plants and bomb
production. However, uranium is one of earth's
heaviest elements and DU packs a Tyson's punch,
smashing through tanks, buildings and bunkers with
equal ease, spontaneously catching fire as it does so,
and burning people alive. 'Crispy critters' is what US
servicemen call those unfortunate enough to be close.
And, when John Pilger encountered children killed at a
greater distance he wrote: " The children's skin had
folded back, like parchment, revealing veins and burnt
flesh that seeped blood, while the eyes, intact, stared
straight ahead. I vomited." (Daily Mirror)
The millions of radioactive uranium oxide particles
released when it burns can kill just as surely, but far
more terribly. They can even be so tiny they pass
through a gas mask, making protection against them
impossible. Yet, small is not beautiful. For these
invisible killers indiscriminately attack men, women,
children and even babies in the womb-and do the
gravest harm of all to children and unborn babies.
A Terrible Legacy
Doctors in Iraq have estimated that birth defects have
increased by 2-6 times, and 3-12 times as many
children have developed cancer and leukaemia since
1991. Moreover, a report published in The Lancet in
1998 said that as many as 500 children a day are dying
from these sequels to war and sanctions and that the
death rate for Iraqi children under 5 years of age
increased from 23 per 1000 in 1989 to 166 per
thousand in 1993. Overall, cases of lymphoblastic
leukemia more than quadrupled with other cancers
also increasing 'at an alarming rate'. In men, lung,
bladder, bronchus, skin, and stomach cancers showed

July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 21

the highest increase. In women, the highest increases
were in breast and bladder cancer, and non-Hodgkin
lymphoma.1
On hearing that DU had been used in the Gulf in 1991,
the UK Atomic Energy Authority sent the Ministry of
Defense a special report on the potential damage to
health and the environment. It said that it could cause
half a million additional cancer deaths in Iraq over 10
years. In that war the authorities only admitted to using
320 tons of DU-although the Dutch charity LAKA
estimates the true figure is closer to 800 tons. Many
times that may have been spread across Iraq by this
year's war. The devastating damage all this DU will do
to the health and fertility of the people of Iraq now, and
for generations to come, is beyond imagining. The
radioactivity persists for over 4,500,000,000 years
killing millions of every age for centuries to come.
This is a crime against humanity which may rank with
the worst atrocities of all time.
We must also count the numberless thousands of
miscarried babies. Nobody knows how many Iraqis
have died in the womb since DU contaminated their
world. But it is suggested that troops who were only
exposed to DU for the brief period of the war were still
excreting uranium in their semen 8 years later and
some had 100 times the so-called 'safe limit' of
uranium in their urine. The lack of government interest
in the plight of veterans of the 1991 war is reflected in
a lack of academic research on the impact of DU but
informal research has found a high incidence of birth
defects in their children and that the wives of men who
served in Iraq have three times more miscarriages than
the wives of servicemen who did not go there.
Since DU darkened the land Iraq has seen birth defects
which would break a heart of stone: babies with
terribly foreshortened limbs, with their intestines
outside their bodies, with huge bulging tumors where
their eyes should be, or with a single eye-like Cyclops,
or without eyes, or without limbs, and even without
heads. Significantly, some of the defects are almost
unknown outside textbooks showing the babies born
near A-bomb test sites in the Pacific.
Doctors report that many women no longer say 'Is it a
girl or a boy?' but simply, 'Is it normal, doctor?'
Moreover this terrible legacy will not end. The genes
of their parents may have been damaged for ever, and
the damaging DU dust is ever-present.
22 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Blue on Blue
What the governments of America and Britain have
done to the people of Iraq they have also done to their
own soldiers, in both wars. And they have done it
knowingly. For the battlefields have been thick with
DU and soldiers have had to enter areas heavily
contaminated by bombing. Moreover, their bodies
have not only been assaulted by DU but also by a
vaccination regime which violated normal protocols,
experimental vaccines, nerve agent pills, and
organophosphate pesticides in their tents. Yet, though
the hazards of DU were known, British and American
troops were not warned of its dangers. Nor were they
given thorough medical checks on their return-even
though identifying it quickly might have made it
possible to remove some of it from their body. Then,
when a growing number became seriously ill, and
should have been sent to top experts in radiation
damage and neurotoxins, many were sent to a
psychiatrist.
Over 200,000 US troops who returned from the 1991
war are now invalided out with ailments officially
attributed to service in Iraq-that's 1 in 3 . In contrast,
the British government's failure to fully assess the
health of returning troops, or to monitor their health,
means no one even knows how many have died or
become gravely ill since their return. However, Gulf
veterans' associations say that, of 40,000 or so fighting
fit men and women who saw active service, at least
572 have died prematurely since coming home and
5000 may be ill. An alarming number are thought to
have taken their own lives, unable to bear the torment
of the innumerable ailments which have combined to
take away their career, their sexuality, their ability to
have normal children, and even their ability to breathe
or walk normally. As one veteran puts it, they are 'on
DU death row, waiting to die'.
Whatever other factors there may be, some of their
illnesses are strikingly similar to those of Iraqis
exposed to DU dust. For example, soldiers have also
fathered children without eyes. And, in a group of eight
servicemen whose babies lack eyes seven are known
to have been directly exposed to DU dust.
They too have fathered children with stunted arms, and
rare abnormalities classically associated with
radiation damage. They too seem prone to cancer and
leukemia. Tellingly, so are EU soldiers who served as
July - 2010
peacekeepers in the Balkans, where DU was also used.
Indeed their leukemia rate has been so high that
several EU governments have protested at the use of
DU.
The Vital Evidence
Despite all that evidence of the harm done by DU,
governments on both sides of the Atlantic have
repeatedly claimed that as it emits only 'low level'
radiation DU is harmless. Award-winning scientist,
Dr. Rosalie Bertell who has led UN medical
commissions, has studied 'low-level' radiation for 30
years. 2 She has found that uranium oxide particles
have more than enough power to harm cells, and
describes their pulses of radiation as hitting
surrounding cells 'like flashes of lightning' again and
again in a single second.2 Like many scientists
worldwide who have studied this type of radiation, she
has found that such 'lightning strikes' can damage
DNA and cause cell mutations which lead to cancer.
Moreover, these particles can be taken up by body
fluids and travel through the body, damaging more
than one organ. To compound all that, Dr. Bertell has
found that this particular type of radiation can cause
the body's communication systems to break down,
leading to malfunctions in many vital organs of the
body and to many medical problems. A striking fact,
since many veterans of the first Gulf war suffer from
innumerable, seemingly unrelated, ailments.
In addition, recent research by Eric Wright, Professor
of Experimental Haematology at Dundee University,
and others, have shown two ways in which such
radiation can do far more damage than has been
thought. The first is that a cell which seems unharmed
by radiation can produce cells with diverse mutations
several cell generations later. (And mutations are at
the root of cancer and birth defects.) This 'radiation-
induced genomic instability' is compounded by 'the
bystander effect' by which cells mutate in unison with
others which have been damaged by radiation-rather
as birds swoop and turn in unison. Put together, these
two mechanisms can greatly increase the damage
done by a single source of radiation, such as a DU
particle. Moreover, it is now clear that there are
marked genetic differences in the way individuals
respond to radiation-with some being far more likely
to develop cancer than others. So the fact that some
veterans of the first Gulf war seem relatively
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
unharmed by their exposure to DU in no way proves
that DU did not damage others.
The Price of Truth
That the evidence from Iraq and from our troops, and
the research findings of such experts, have been
ignored may be no accident. A US report, leaked in late
1995, allegedly says, 'The potential for health effects
from DU exposure is real; however it must be viewed
in perspective... the financial implications of long-
term disability payments and healthcare costs would
be excessive.'3
Clearly, with hundreds of thousands gravely ill in Iraq
and at least a quarter of a million UK and US troops
seriously ill, huge disability claims might be made not
only against the governments of Britain and America if
the harm done by DU were acknowledged. There
might also be huge claims against companies making
DU weapons and some of their directors are said to be
extremely close to the White House. How close they
are to Downing Street is a matter for speculation, but
arms sales makes a considerable contribution to
British trade. So the massive whitewashing of DU over
the past 12 years, and the way that governments have
failed to test returning troops, seemed to disbelieve
them, and washed their hands of them, may be purely
to save money.
The possibility that financial considerations have led
the governments of Britain and America to cynically
avoid taking responsibility for the harm they have
done not only to the people of Iraq but to their own
troops may seem outlandish. Yet DU weapons weren't
used by the other side and no other explanation fits the
evidence. For, in the days before Britain and America
first used DU in war its hazards were no secret.4 One
American study in 1990 said DU was 'linked to cancer
when exposures are internal, [and to] chemical
toxicity-causing kidney damage'. While another
openly warned that exposure to these particles under
battlefield conditions could lead to cancers of the lung
and bone, kidney damage, non-malignant lung
disease, neuro-cognitive disorders, chromosomal
damage and birth defects.5
A Culture of Denial
In 1996 and 1997 UN Human Rights Tribunals
condemned DU weapons for illegally breaking the
23
Geneva Convention and classed them as 'weapons of
mass destruction' 'incompatible with international
humanitarian and human rights law'. Since then,
following leukemia in European peacekeeping troops
in the Balkans and Afghanistan (where DU was also
used), the EU has twice called for DU weapons to be
banned.
Yet, far from banning DU, America and Britain
stepped up their denials of the harm from this
radioactive dust as more and more troops from the first
Gulf war and from action and peacekeeping in the
Balkans and Afghanistan have become seriously ill.
This is no coincidence. In 1997, while citing
experiments, by others, in which 84 percent of dogs
exposed to inhaled uranium died of cancer of the
lungs, Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then Professor of
Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at Georgetown
University in Washington was quoted as saying, 'The
[US government's] Veterans Administration asked me
to lie about the risks of incorporating depleted
uranium in the human body.'
He concluded, 'uranium does cause cancer, uranium
does cause mutation, and uranium does kill. If we
continue with the irresponsible contamination of the
biosphere, and denial of the fact that human life is
endangered by the deadly isotope uranium, then we
are doing disservice to ourselves, disservice to the
truth, disservice to God and to all generations who
follow.' Not what the authorities wanted to hear and
his research was suddenly blocked.
During 12 years of ever-growing British whitewash
the authorities have abolished military hospitals,
where there could have been specialized research on
the effects of DU and where expertise in treating DU
victims could have built up. And, not content with the
insult of suggesting the gravely disabling symptoms
of Gulf veterans are imaginary they have refused full
pensions to many.
For, despite all the evidence to the contrary, the current
House of Commons briefing paper on DU hazards
says 'it is judged that any radiation effects from
possible exposures are extremely unlikely to be a
contributory factor to the illnesses currently being
experienced by some Gulf war veterans.' Note how
over a quarter of a million sick and dying US and UK
vets are called 'some'.
24 Kisan Ki Awaaz
The Way Ahead
Britain and America not only used DU in this year's
Iraq war, they dramatically increased its use-from a
minimum of 320 tons in the previous war to at
minimum of 1500 tons in this one. And this time the
use of DU wasn't limited to anti-tank weapons-as it had
largely been in the previous Gulf war-but was
extended to the guided missiles, large bunker busters
and big 2000-pound bombs used in Iraq's cities. This
means that Iraq's cities have been blanketed in lethal
particles-any one of which can cause cancer or deform
a child. In addition, the use of DU in huge bombs
which throw the deadly particles higher and wider in
huge plumes of smoke means that billions of deadly
particles have been carried high into the air-again and
again and again as the bombs rained down-ready to be
swept worldwide by the winds.
The Royal Society has suggested the solution is
massive decontamination in Iraq. That could only
scratch the surface. For decontamination is hugely
expensive and, though it may reduce the risks in some
of the worst areas, it cannot fully remove them. For DU
is too widespread on land and water. How do you clean
up every nook and cranny of a city the size of
Baghdad? How can they decontaminate a whole
country in which microscopic particles, which cannot
be detected with a normal geiger counter, are spread
from border to border? And how can they clean up all
the countries downwind of Iraq-and, indeed, the
world?
So there are only two things we can do to mitigate this
crime against humanity. The first is to provide the best
possible medical care for the people of Iraq, for our
returning troops and for those who served in the last
Gulf war and, through that, minimize their suffering.
The second is to relegate war, and the production and
sale of weapons, to the scrap heap of history-along
with slavery and genocide.
Then, and only then, will this crime against humanity
be expunged, and the tragic deaths from this war truly
bring freedom to the people of Iraq, and of the world.
Http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadI
D=200082971&;;tstart=0&mod=1114828895160
July - 2010
 Handful of pistachios could destroy cholesterol
A handful of pistachio nuts a day can help destroy bad cholesterol,
ward off heart disease and prevent cancer, say scientists.
21 May 2010- The nuts are full of antioxidants that important in vision and healthy skin.
protect cells from damage by harmful chemicals,
called 'free radicals'. It is believed antioxidants also prevent cholesterol
from moving into the blood vessel walls and causing
The findings published in the Journal of Nutrition inflammation.
follows previous research by the same team that
discovered pistachios help destroy bad cholesterol When the researchers tested the effects of pistachios
that can lead to heart attacks and stroke. on antioxidant levels they found participants had
m u c h
Professor m o r e
Penny antioxida
K r i s - nts in
Etherton, t h e i r
o f blood and
Pennsylv l o w e r
ania State cholester
Universit o l
y, said: concentra
" O u r t i o n s
previous w h e n
s t u d y they ate
showed the nuts.
t h e
benefits In the
o f experime
pistachio nt, they
s i n ate three
lowering different
lipids and diets for a
lipoproteins, which are a risk factor for heart disease. month - a normal cholesterol lowering diet with no
nuts and two other similar food regimes with 1.5
"This new study shows an additional effect of ounces and 3 ounces of pistachios respectively.
pistachios so now there are multiple health benefits of
eating pistachios.” Prof Kris-Etherton added: "Our results suggest that a
heart-healthy diet including pistachios contributes to
She and colleagues found pistachios are much richer a decrease in serum oxidized-LDL levels, in part
in the main dietary antioxidants lutein, beta-carotene through cholesterol lowering, and also due to an added
and gamma-tocopherol than other nuts. benefit of the antioxidants in the pistachios."

Beta-carotene turns into vitamin A which prevents

cancer and gamma-tocopherol is a common form of Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7
vitamin E that wards off heart disease. 746019/Handful-of-pistachios-could-destroy-
cholesterol.html
Lutein is found in dark green leafy vegetables and is
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 25
 Scientist Resigns -’GM Dialogue' Naked PR for Industry
UK regulator Food Standards Agency must be held to
account for ignoring incontrovertible evidence of harm
and persisting in promoting GM food to the nation at
taxpayers' expense Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
Dr. Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK resigned
from UK Food Standards Agency's Steering Group for GM
Dialogue in a strongly worded open letter to the chair,
exposing and condemning it as a naked “PR exercise on
behalf of the GM industry” at taxpayers' expense,
£500 000 to be precise.
Through freedom of Information, she learned that the FSA
met with the industry group the Agricultural
Biotechnology Council (ABC) in September 2009 to
discuss a “GM public engagement programme”, and in
October, the ABC wrote to the FSA stating that “abc
welcomes the opportunity to provide suggestions on the
individuals and groups that would add value to the FSA
GM engagement Steering Group.” And while it supports
the activity and understand the importance of the initiative,
it believes “GM must be presented as an option within the
wider context of food security as part of a solution to
feeding a growing population.”
The industry also suggested edits to a draft FSA report to
the Food Strategy Task Force, which claims that lack of
demand and rising costs will drive out non-GM feed
supplies, and GM and non-GM feed should no longer be
segregated. In a subsequent report, the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the
FSA supported the industry's line that 'zero tolerance' of
unapproved GM crops in the EU threatens food supplies.
Not surprisingly, the background materials provided to the
Steering Group by the FSA claim that “current problems
with the supply of non-GM soya mean that over the next 12
months retailers and food manufacturers will need to
consider whether they can sustain their current GM-Free
stance” and: “The Government has recommended that
discussions take place in the wider context of global food
supply to take account of the long term security of global
food production and changing food prices.”
FSA has persistently refused to allow debate on the role of
GM in feeding the world. In her letter, Wallace pointed out
that FSA's policy note which took six months to produce -
does not suggest the public should be in any way consulted
about plans to allow the contamination of feed shipments
26 Kisan Ki Awaaz
with unauthorised GM, or about the lack of labelling for
meat or dairy products derived from animals fed on GM
feed.
She notes that the same industry PR strategy is being
implemented by market research firm, Ipsos-MORI, which
states in its bid to run the dialogue that the Ipsos Mori
Reputation Centre has been working with a “multi-national
Agro-chemical and seed company” and its advertising
agency since 2009 “to develop concepts which link
agribusiness with important global issues (such as climate
change, water scarcity, deforestation etc) and position the
company as a positive force”.
It warns that campaign organisations could “try and hijack
the [dialogue] process to ensure GM food does not get a
chance to be reintroduced into the UK. The danger is that
anti-GM campaigning could take place in the absence of
any 'defence' except from industry who will struggle to be
credible”.
“This seems a shockingly one-sided view for a company
bidding to run a dialogue”, Wallace wrote. “In reality, there
is no shortage of GM-free feed supplies, although the US
company Monsanto is reported to be attempting to
restricting the access of Brazilian farmers to conventional
(non-GM) soybean seeds.” In response to Wallace's
resignation, Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy
Director, called on Lord Rooker, Chair of the FSA , to stop
wasting money trying to promote the old government's and
Tony Blair's “obsession with getting the British public to
like GM food.”
GM agriculture and food is definitely not the solution, it is
not even part of the solution, but the problem itself (see my
recent Foreword to the publication from Remin University
in Beijing, China, GM Food Angel or Devil for a succinct
summary of evidence on the ecological disasters and
serious health threats that has come to light. The GM
meltdown has continued with new devastating research
results released Scientists Reveal Glyphosate Poisons
Crops and Soil and Glyphosate Tolerant Crops Bring
Diseases and Death; . The FSA must be held to account for
willfully ignoring incontrovertible evidence on the serious
threats of GM agriculture and jeopardizing the food
security and health of the nation.
Http://www.isis.org.uk/GM_Dialogue_Naked_PR.php
July - 2010
 Where Do Chemicals in Our Food Come From?
* Dr. Frank Lipman .MD
Jun 20, 2010 - Healthy eating simply means
removing, or limiting, the foods in your diet that could
be harming you; and eating enough of the foods that
contain the nutrients essential to your health. So, what
foods could be harming you? Ones filled with
chemicals. Here are some of the main sources of
unhealthy chemicals in our food:
Chemicals and drugs used in raising livestock
Researchers feel that this is probably the biggest
problem and none of these are required to appear on
the label. Over 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the
USA are used in raising livestock to prevent infection
because theanimals are kept in cramped inhumane
conditions.
Steroids are also given to increase milk production
and speed growth. The feed given to these animals is
full of chemicals as well and pesticides and chemicals
accumulate in the fat of these animals that we then eat.
So if you do eat dairy or animal protein, eating organic
is important to decrease your chemical burden.
Chemicals used in pesticides and fertilizers
Although the use of pesticides has made our food
production more efficient, it has placed a huge/large
toxic burden on us and the earth. In 1995, more than 5
billion pounds of pesticides were sold worldwide,
more than 1 billion pounds in the USA. FDA
inspections have found legal residues on two thirds of
food sampled, therefore these pesticides remain on
our food.
According to the Environmental Working Group
(EWG), you can lower your pesticide consumption by
nearly four-fifths by avoiding the 12 most
contaminated fruits and vegetables and instead eating
the least contaminated produce.
Chemicals used in the production of our food
Over 12,000 chemicals are used in the production of
our food. Many are used intentionally as “direct”
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
additives, but some are “indirect” contaminants or
used accidentally. As of 1995, complete health risk
assessments were available for only 5 percent of food
additives.
The food industry uses about 3,000 different food
additives in various packaged and preserved foods.
These include (preservatives), emulsifiers, buffers,
natural and artificial colorings and flavorings.
And then there are the genetically modified foods,
which are now turning up all over the show. Here is a
great guide on how to avoid foods made with
genetically modified foods.
Chemicals we create in processing foods
Trans fats or hydrogenated fats would be the most
common.
Contaminants associated with processing of foods
During shipping and storage, chemical cleaners, food
sprays and fungicides are used.
Chemicals absorbed into our food from the way we
cook, store and serve our food
Non stick pans, pots, bake-ware and utensils contain
Teflon, which is made from perfluorinated
compounds which have been linked to cancer and
reproductive problems. And then we store and serve
our food in containers that leech chemicals into our
food, eg plastics and styrofoam. And please
remember this is only a list of chemicals in our food,
not our water and personal care products, which are
also full of chemicals.
* Founder and director of the Eleven Eleven
Wellness Center in NYC, a center whose emphasis is
on preventive health care and patient education.
Author of the recent Revive: Stop Feeling Spent
and Start Living Again (2009)and Total Renewal; 7
key steps to Resilience, Vitality and Long-Term
Health(2003).
27
 Nano foods and rice
* Arun Shrivastava CMC
The corporatization of food is hurtling along at tremendous
speed. First came the Green Revolution technologies with
their oil guzzling tractors, hybrid seeds, fertilizers, pesticides
and growth hormones. We now know the full consequence of
this stupidity. Next, we are being prepared for the eugenic
technology of gene revolution.
I had reviewed William Engdahl's “SEEDS OF
DESTRUCTION” and said that agriculture biotechnology is
different from medical biotechnology because while the latter
is very careful in what it does with alien genes, the former is a
means to grab the genetic diversity across the planet earth by
Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow and DuPont. These five
firms represent the western world's onslaught on global food
production and they have the full support of the US and EU
Governments.
Now we are faced with Nano technology in foods and of all
the crops, rice, which is our staple food.
Our government has no idea of what this food technology is
and there has been no debate on how Nano foods can harm us
and take away the control of farmlands and place them in the
hands of criminal corporations. “After GMO,
nanotechnologies come uninvited onto our plates: nanofoods,
treated with nanopesticides and contained in nanopackaging,
are on the rise.
At stake: colossal financial profits for manufacturers and
environmental and health risks impossible to evaluate today.
All in a complete and unbelievable absence of rules and
controls.”
Http://www.truthout.org/are-we-all-nanogrub-guinea-
pigs57077
What is Nano technology?
It is certainly not Tata's Nano. It is far more lethal.
An atom is about 1 tenth of a nanometer; the DNA of the
living world is about 10 nanometers; the proteins that help
our cells survive are about 20 nanometers.
"Some nanoparticles may cross and/or alter plasma, nucleus,
and mitochondrial membranes, induce hydrolipid
peroxidation and the generation of reactive types of oxygen,
itself the source of oxidative stress that can alter proteins and
DNA” (Hong 200657; Xia 200658; Beck-Speier 200559;
Lewinski et al. 200860; Stone 200761; Hussain et al.,
200562).
28 Kisan Ki Awaaz
Source: Nanotechnologies et nanoparticules dans
lalimentation humaine et animale [Nanotechnologies and
nanoparticles in human and animal food] - AFSSA.
"Nanoparticles can cause DNA damage across a cellular
barrier," Gevdeep Bhabra et al., Nature Nanotechnology (on
line, 5 November 2009).
Basically it means that Nano technology can harm us in ways
that we, or the current level of science, does not know in how
many ways. Yet 106 Nano foods are in the market. Nano
technology driven Nano-world is a reality but few know about
them. We are now moving into a planet where idiotic
scientists, employed by criminal corporations, are developing
NANO particles invisible to the microscope. A
NANOMETER is a billionth of a meter that can cross lung
tissue barrier. The world is being promised that
nanotechnologies will be the foundation of a third industrial
revolution in the twenty-first century.
If you ingest Nano food, its particles can float in your blood
stream and lodge into brain, without being detected. Nano
particles are already present in foods manufactured by world's
largest food corporations, the same corporations that gave us
Green Revolution and Gene revolution technologies. And the
long term implications of these technologies were ignored by
our Government Nano technologies are also present in
agricultural pesticides, food packaging, and storage
containers.
There is no control and no labelling.
These particles, so small, that they can cross biological
barriers and can circulate throughout our body: skin, tissues,
the brain.
We were fed Green Revolution chemicals, we survived
and know the consequences. We are being fed Gene
revolution foods that would lead to mass culling of India's
population.
And now Nano foods and chemicals are being slipped in,
without the knowledge of our regulators.
The Nano rice developed by a Thai company is purple in
colour. I'd like to know how many Asians would like to eat
purple rice or white turmeric or pink cucumber?
Many other rice varieties are being Nano-engineered.
Most foods are being Nano engineered.
When the Government of India wakes up, there may not be
many Government officers left alive to take any decision.
July - 2010
 Bill Gates now pushing
genetically modified seeds in Africa
* David Gutierrez
June 25, 2010 The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation continues to throw its support behind
risky genetically modified (GM) seeds as a means for
feeding hungry Africans, ignoring safer and more
reliable technologies that already exist.
Not long after publicly blaming GM critics for
prolonging hunger in Africa, Gates announced that
his foundation is partnering with DuPont subsidiary
Pioneer Hi-Bred to develop higher yield GM strains
of corn.
Two years ago, the Gates Foundation also partnered
with Monsanto to develop drought-tolerant GM corn.
The companies claim that these GM seeds will be
delivered to small farmers free of charge.
Yet Monsanto says its drought-tolerant corn will not
be ready until 2012, at which point it will be
introduced into the commercial market.
It will not be made available to poor African farmers
until 2016.
Pioneer is using conventional (non-GM) breeding
techniques to produce higher yielding corn by 2014.
There is no projected date for when a GM version of
this new strain will be developed.
"It's hard not to think that Monsanto, Dupont and
their ilk are turning into the Bernie Madoff of
agriculture," writes "Grist" blogger Tom Laskawy.
"Convince gullible foundations along with the
federal government to send billions in research
dollars their way based on a promise of magically
awesome results. Sometime down the road, of
course.”
As Laskawy notes, the Nigeria National Variety
Release Committee has already developed -- without
July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz
the use of biotechnology -- various new corn strains
that are resistant to drought, pests, disease, and poor
soil fertility.
These conventionally bred seeds do not pose any of
the well-documented risks of GM crops, such as toxic
health and environmental effects; the production of
"super-weeds" and contamination of organic crops
through cross-pollination; increased pesticide use; or
encouraging monocultures and a loss of seed
diversity.
"If only Bill Gates, not to mention USDA Chief Tom
Vilsack or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would
spend some of their money getting those Nigerian
seeds into farmers' hands today," Laskawy writes.
“Instead, they'd prefer to funnel billions of dollars to
biotech giants because, well, 2016 isn't really so long
to wait."
Sources for this story include:
www.grist.org/article/gates-foundat...
* staff writer (NaturalNews)
Find all
Agriculture Policies
Farmers Issues
Products News
Video & Magazine.
For More Information.
Www.kisankiawaaz.org
29
AGRITECH INDIA 2010
A Grand Exhibition Focuses on
Technology Transfer and Farm Mechanisation
The present agriculture scenario in India would reveal harvest care.
that although the Green Revolution has brought about a
transformation on the farm front, the situation calls for It is also encouraging the farmers to diversify from
many mid-course corrections to enhance the output traditional crops to high value horticulture crops for
through such measures as area expansion, productivity long term economic development.
increase and restoration of soil health to augment
employment opportunities and income. As is well known, right use of technology holds the key
to sort out many
Transfer of problems in
technology is a agriculture and
'must' to make allied sectors.
the benefits of
the Revolution M o d e r n
m o r e technology
meaningful to needs to be
the stakeholders, adopted to
who include the improve the
f a r m e r s , functioning of
industry & trade the entire
and, of course, agricultural
the government. activities.
In recent years, It is against this
much emphasis background that
has been given M e d i a To d a y
by the Ministry Group, which
of Agriculture on h a s a n
commercializin impeccable track
g agricultural record in
production in the organising
country. international trade fairs and conferences, is holding the
2nd edition of AgriTech India exhibition
Adequate production and distribution of food has (www.agritechindia.com) concurrently with 1st
become a high priority and global concern. In the fast Bangalore Flora Expo.
changing world and increasing competition in a
globalised economy, there is a need of exploiting the AgriTech India 2010, an International exhibition on
available resources at maximum level and use of best agriculture, farm machineries equipment, dairy,
technologies available world over, to cope with poultry, live stock, aquaculture products and
domestic demand of food and also to target export technology, will be held from 20 to 22 August at Palace
market. Ground, Bangalore.
The Ministry is aiming to double the production of all Undoubtedly, AgriTech assumes greater significance in
horticulture crops through NHM and disseminating the context of the National Food Security Mission,
latest and modern practices of production and post launched by the government in 2007-08 to give a big

30 Kisan Ki Awaaz July - 2010

boost to the production -- and productivity of rice,
wheat and pulses through technological intervention in
the Eleventh Five-year Plan.
The exhibition will focus on transfer of technology to
the farmers and farm mechanisation.
The growers in southern region, undoubtedly as
hardworking as elsewhere in the country, are
handicapped by the fact that not many major
international exhibitions and conferences are held
there. AgriTech India 2010, therefore, seeks to address
this problem seriously.

The event has the full support of the Union Ministry of
Agriculture, the Ministry of Food Processing
Industries (MOFPI) and APEDA, all of which have a
vital stake in increasing agriculture production to meet
rising domestic demand and to promote food exports.
To impart more value to the event, a two-day
international conference is being planned.
Appropriately, the theme of the conference is “Food
Security through Technology”.

While the Agriculture Ministry has a plethora of The topics to be discussed at the conference are divided
schemes to encourage adoption of latest technology to into three broad heads: International and domestic
r a i s e production
productivity scenario;
levels in the Enhancing
farms, MOFPI q u a l i t y
has its focus on production and
c h e c k i n g marketing
colossal losses t h r o u g h
of harvested improved
food grains and technology;
horticulture Innovations in
produce by p r o d u c t
promoting development.
value addition
through use of Top officials and
l a t e s t experts from the
technology. government of
India, trade
APEDA's role, bodies, farming
on the other community and
hand, becomes corporate sector
important as it are scheduled to
has set its eyes participate in the
on taking food exports from the country to a new high. discussions.
The aim is to make India a “Food Basket of the world.”
Exhibitors from India and abroad will participate in the
APEDA has set an export target of 15 billion dollars Expo.
worth food products to be achieved in the coming
years. Last year trade visitors, from 26 countries like The
Netherlands, Bahrain, Iran, UAE, USA, Germany,
This event will be particularly relevant in South India, Taiwan, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Kuwait,
where farmers grow a number of crops, but face Jamaica, Greece, Pakistan, Israel, Uganda, Turkey,
problems in enhancing production and productivity Ethiopia, UK, Spain, Belgium and Japan were at Expo.
because of inadequate exposure to high technology and
inputs as also to advanced production practices,
logistics and marketing. For more details, please contact
agritechindia@gmail.com

July - 2010 Kisan Ki Awaaz 31

 Now, panchayats can donate
common land to govt depts
* Chander Parkash
Ferozepur, June 29 - In a significant
development, the state government has made an
important amendment to the Punjab Village
Common Lands (Regulations) Rules, 1964, to
make a provision for “donating” common land
(shamlat deh) owned by panchayats to other
departments, including those which carry out
commercial operations of the state government,
with the previous approval of the deputy
commissioner concerned.
With this amendment, panchayats have been
empowered to donate common land (shamlat
deh) for constructing power grid, school and
dispensary by the state government, foodgrain
yard by the Punjab Mandi Board, water supply
scheme and for construction of any building by
any department of the state government.
Before this amendment, the panchayat could
have donated its land with the previous approval
of the state government only and that too for
hospital, dispensary, educational and charitable
institutions.
Earlier, the panchayat land was given for
construction of power grid or food grain yards
for a requisite price, which was fixed by a price
fixation committee.
A notification in this regard has been issued a
few days ago by the state government.
A cross section of officials of the Department of
Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab,
said the state government had brought this
amendment as it wanted to handover the lands
owned by panchayats to Punjab State
Transmission Corporation Limited, Punjab
32 Kisan Ki Awaaz
State Power Corporation Limited, Punjab
Mandi Board and other commercial
organisations free of cost.
They claimed that department of rural
development officials had been insisting on the
fact that since these departments were doing
business and, hence, they should not be given
panchayat-owned land free of cost as land was
only source of income for a major section of
panchayats.
They said about 60 representations made by
these corporations and the mandi board had
been lying with the department of rural
development for taking panchayat land for
setting up of power grids and food grain yards
for the past many months.
When the department authorities insisted that
requisite money must be paid to panchayats
concerned for their lands, this amendment was
made in the rules to oust department from this
exercise.
They said why the government was intending to
take panchayat land free of cost for setting up
power grids when electricity was being sold in
lieu of money to consumers.
Similarly, the mandi board charges fee for the
services extended by it to farmers and others.
They feared that if this amendment was
implemented without any safe guards, almost
all panchayats would become landless within a
few years.
Sources -Tribune News Service
July - 2010
 Polluted & poisonous water of Agra canal
damaging large area of Moong Crop in Palwal (Haryana)

Parthenium Weed Damaging Moong Crop

Water is Life,
Polluters must pay and be punished
R.N.I.. No. DELENG/2009/30545 DL(E)-20/5324/2010-2012

Save Tree, Save Water, Save Fuel,

To make the Earth Cool

To Save Farmers Rights,

To Save Land Rights,
To Save Food Rights,

Be the member of
Bharatiya Krishak Samaj
(A National Farmers Organisation)
By the Farmers,
Of the Farmers,
For the Farmers.

Dr. Krishan Bir Chaudhary

President,

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