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GR Poses Threat to Bio-diversity: Dr Deb
-The New Indian Express

KOCHI: Questioning the Green Revolution (GR) is like blasphemy in mainstream agricultural discourses. But, plant scientist-turned farmer Dr Debal Deb, an atheist by choice and seed conservationist by vocation, dares to question the very basics of the Green Revolution, and rips down the tall claims of its proponents.

Delivering a lecture on ‘A Journey Towards Ecotopia,’ at the Renewal Centre here on Saturday, Dr Deb held the Green Revolution (GR) responsible for destruction of the rich bio-diversity and extinction of rare ethnic seed varieties that were far better than the high-yielding seeds popularised by agricultural scientists. Claiming that the Green Revolution was a big lie, Dr Deb said statistics proved that the contribution of the high-yielding rice varieties introduced by the proponents of the GR had only a limited influence on increasing production.

“The area of irrigated land increased by more than 60 per cent between 1965 and 2010, and the area under cultivation expanded exponentially. Also, the farmers tried many crops every year, contributing to the increase in production. Meanwhile, the use of high-yielding crop varieties was limited to just 17 per cent of the total cultivated land,” Dr Deb said, refuting the claims of ‘high yield’ by modern rice breeds.

Calling rice research in India a sham, Dr Deb, who cultivates more than 1,120 ethnic rice varieties in his farm at Niyamgiri in Odisha, said that Indian research organisations had not come up with a stable rice variety, despite sixty years of research, that increased production in upland, rainfed lowland and coastal salinated farms. “At the same time, ethnic rice varieties that are tolerant to adverse conditions were deliberately ignored,” he added.

“We have 150 varieties of seeds in my farms that are tolerant to adverse conditions like draught, flood and salinity. Among the twenty rice varieties that are tolerant to flood, one rice variety grows up to 20 feet above flood waters,” said Dr Deb, who established the seed bank named ‘Vrihi’.

Dr Deb also questioned the claims that the GR resulted in self-sufficiency in rice production. “Surplus rice production comes at a big cost.  We imported seeds, pumps, fertilisers and pesticides from abroad. We have also begun to import mustard oil, among other things, which we used to export. It is like a ‘lassi’ (curd) vendor claiming self sufficiency. Of course, he makes the curd himself, but buys milk and sugar from the market,” Dr Deb added.