The US already has a significant presence in India's agricultural and food sectors, accounting for more than half of the $1 billion organised seed market. Of course, four-fifths of India's farmers do not purchase seeds. They still follow the traditional system of save, exchange and barter. It is this section that the MNCs would like to target.
The conversion of Indian farmers from traditional varieties and public hybrids to commercial hybrids and GM seeds could create a market larger than China. The Seed Bill, 2004, and the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority Bill are the thin end of the wedge.
The NBRA Bill, if it becomes an Act, would demolish a raft of existing bio-safety regulations, which would enable easier access to the Indian markets.The Seed Bill has been criticised for diluting many provisions of the existing Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, PPVFR, which safeguards the right of Indian farmers to freely save, exchange and barter seeds.
I personally feel government should take into consideration all the consequences of it and make certain changes in the Seed bill and NBRA Bill to protect the interest of the nation.
us consider the third world countries as there practical ground.....the central government is ready to crawl,when us tell them to just bend....!!! they are not considering the interest of Indian farmers... already the introduction of GM COTTON is a big failure.......it has been blamed for serious crop failure... and lead to mass suicide of farmers in the cotton growing belt of vidharba and anthra pradesh...
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ReplyDeleteNot only US is responsible for the failure of BT COTTON, after it failed in US, Monsanto has lost its market over there and then found INDIA as potential market which is one of the largest exporter of Cotton and made a success attempt.Now the same is happening in case of BT brinjal.We should not accept this because whatever the outdated technology, the developed countries are dumping into developing countries like India and undeveloped countries like South Africa.
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