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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Hard Look: Hot Potato -Sohini Ghosh

Hard Look: Hot Potato -Sohini Ghosh

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published Published on May 7, 2019   modified Modified on May 7, 2019
-The Indian Express

Amid the ongoing controversy that erupted with PepsiCo India’s lawsuits against 11 farmers for growing its patented potato variety, The Indian Express meets the affected farmers to find the genesis of the problem .

Among the 11 farmers of Gujarat who have been slapped lawsuits by PepsiCo India for “illegally” growing its patented potato variety FL 2027, are Fulchand Kachchhawa and his brother Suresh of Malgadh village in Deesa taluka of Banaskantha. The brothers own nearly 50 acres of land in the district, besides two cold storages and are directors in a Deesa-based potato chips company, Tirupati Balaji Chips Potato, a local ostensible rival of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips.

“We grow a lot of varieties of potato in our fields — Badshah, Locker, Lady Rosetta. Actually, we don’t depend on just one variety. We were not aware of any of this (patented variety of potato),” says Fulchand as he shows his field where muskmelon and millet have been sown after the potato harvest this Spring. “It was only when we received the (legal) notice on April 22, we got to know about the lawsuit (filed by the PepsiCo),” he adds, refusing to show the legal notice served to him and his brother.

In its lawsuits that PepsiCo India has now announced to withdraw, it had sought damages ranging from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1.05 crore from the 11 farmers.

But Kachchhawas, who have seen their family’s land holding grow exponentially in the last two decades, are not small and marginal farmers whose incomes are dependent on the vagaries of the market. Fulchand had a collaborative farming arrangement with PepsiCo India in 2007 for ATL (Atlantic) variety which was then used by the company for making chips, and had grown their potato seeds over an area of 4 to 5 acres back then he says. “The approximate yield was 14-15 tonnes per acre of which nearly 15-20% of the entire crop produced was rejected by the PepsiCo as it did not match the company’s quality parameters,” he says, asserting that since then they had no tie-up with the Indian subsidiary of the US food giant.

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The Indian Express, 6 May, 2019, https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/gujarat-potato-farmers-pepsico-india-patent-row-5711757/


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