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Anti- farmer’ Seeds Bill has the Left up in arms against govt


The six-year-old Seeds Bill could be the next headache for the UPA government in Parliament.

As the government plans to introduce the Bill in the Rajya Sabha this week, the Opposition, especially the Left parties, and several farmers’ organisations have ganged up against some of its provisions.

The Left is also in touch with other political parties to put pressure on the government to remove certain “ antifarmer” clauses in the Bill.

The Bill was cleared by the Union cabinet last month. It was listed for discussion in the Upper House on Friday, but could not be taken up because of the ruckus over the Shashi Tharoor fiasco.

Critics of the Bill say the amendments proposed by the agriculture ministry to the Bill “ compromises” the right of the farmers to grow, sow, save, use, exchange, share or sell their farm seeds.

A statement by the Kisan Sabha, a Left- leaning farmers’ group, said: “ The agriculture minister has disregarded the substantive amendments proposed by the ( parliamentary) standing committee on agriculture and

resorted merely to cosmetic changes. It is seeking to push through a legislation that will jeopardise the lives of peasants and put agriculture at the mercy of MNC agri- businesses.” The parliamentary standing committee on agriculture headed by SP general secretary Ramgopal Yadav had suggested major amendments to the Bill in 2006.

Dr Krishan Bir Chaudhary, president of the Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, said he had met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue. “ This Bill is to protect the interests of multinational seed companies like Monsanto,” he said. “ The MNCs are trying to capture the seed market in India.

The Centre has learnt no lessons from Vidarbha, where multinational companies cheated cotton farmers with spurious seeds.” The Seeds Act of 1966 was enough to protect the rights and interests of farmers on seeds, Chaudhary said.

The Left is ready with its plan to corner the government. “ We will oppose the Bill in its present form. We are in consultations with other parties to form a joint strategy,” CPM’s Rajya Sabha MP Tapan Sen said.

A CPI delegation led by Atul Kumar Anjan, met agriculture minister Sharad Pawar last week on the issue. “ There should be a national commission to fix seed prices. The Bill should have a provision to punish the suppliers of spurious seeds.

The penalty for offenders should be made at least Rs 10 lakh along with one- year rigorous imprisonment,” Anjan said.

“Many multinational seed companies and national corporations are selling seeds at a high rate, increasing the cost of agricultural inputs exorbitantly,” he said.

Farmers’ outfits say the Bill neither proposes time- bound disposal of complaints nor a fast- track arbitration authority accessible to farmers. “ It promotes exclusive, perpetual and monopolistic rights of seed companies to arbitrarily fix prices and allows them unrestricted right to collect exorbitant royalties,” the Kisan Sabha said.

Farmers fear that the provisional registration granted for transgenic varieties will facilitate the entry of untested seeds and genetically modified crops into the market through the backdoor.