Fate of Bt.brinjal farmers will be of Bt. Cotton farmers –VJAS

Fate of Bt.brinjal farmers will be of Bt. Cotton farmers –VJAS

NAGPUR-18^th October 2009

The high power committee decision to give official union Govt. permission farming of genetically modified (GM) crops like the Bt brinjal in the country is vet unfortunate as in fact there are 40 food crop in queue to get GEAC nod after this

Bt.brinjal introduction has resulted in huge cry of Social activists who are protesting the decision of Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), the biotechnology regulator, to give approval the commercialisation of genetically modified Bt brinjal on Wednesday .

India allowed commercial cultivation of Bt cotton in 2002, sparking protests from activists who contended that genetically altered crops are a health hazard, spoil soil texture and above all, harm the environment.

Activist are claiming that GM vegetables would be an environmental disaster and cause diseases, which would be hazardous to human life too asking the government not to act in haste and that there is a need for extensive testing prior to endorsing cultivation of GM crops as Bt brinjal is a transgenic vegetable, which carries a gene called 'Bt' from a bacterium, which releases toxin to kill fruit and shoot borer insects same technology used for Bt. Cotton which has completely failed in west vidarbha as per recent developments in vidarbha .

Vidarbha Janandolan samiti (VJAS) who are monitoring farm suicides in west vidarbha which under on going agrarian crisis and more than 7000 cotton farmers who opted to cultivate bt.cotton forced to kill themselves in last five years after Govt. of Maharashtra permitted commercial trials of Bt.cotton seeed in June 2005 ,

VJAS leader Kishore Tiwari has urged all concern authorities to look at the shocking facts of agrarian disaster after GM technological revolution in vidarbha region known as suicide capital of nation .

Here is table which gives some of shocking facts regarding post Bt.cotton commercial permission

Record of bt. Cotton performance in since 2005 after commercial trial were given	Area under cultivation of bt.cotton	Farm suicides reported in cotton belt of west vidarbha	Relief package to save dying Bt.cotton farmers of west vidarbha	Percentage of farmers who opted bt.cotton and committed suicide	Sudden increase in pest attack and increase in sale of pesticide	Sudden increase in epidemic and deadly diseases like chikengunia cancer and rheumatic heart deases
2005	4 million hector	456	Rs.1075 crore CM package to save cotton farmers after Bt. Cotton officially failed	68%	“lalya” damaged whole crop of Bt.cotton. Pesticide sale increased by 44%	“chiken gunia” killed more than 124 people in west vidarbha and this virus is gifted by Bt.cotton seed
2006	8 million hector	1684	Rs.3750 crore PM relief package to west vidarbha Bt.cotton farmers	78%	Mealy bug destroyed the bt.cotton and massive increase in contact and non contact of chemicals pesticides increased by another 32%	Sudden increase in cancer cases in west vidarbha
2007	12 million hector	1460	-	82%	Low use of pesticide but yield of cotton not increased	Rise in toxicity in west vidarbha ,more and more cases of critical health care and dieses started reporting in all PHCs .and as per official record hundreds of poor farmers and farm workers are becoming victims of deises that they are dying before being treated.
2008	21 million hector	1290	Rs.70 ,000 crore loan waiver to control cotton farmers suicides	74%	Increase in cotton yield by 30% but increase in cultivation cost double ,thanks election year that MSP of cotton raised by 72% and procurement was done by the Govt. agencies .	Alarmimg rise in cancer and other deadly diseases, even affecting cattle and forest in the region . uncontrolled water mining to get maximum yield of Bt.cotton has drop down the water level to 164 meters in the region
2009	32 million hector	820	Rs.6208 crore extended loan waiver to stop on going cotton farmers suicides	86%	Very bad year for the cotton most of Bt.cotton already damaged by mealy bug and lalya .Bt.cotton all set to give maximum losses to Maharashtra farmers ,will trigger another spate of farm suicides as farmers expenses are all most double but yield like to be dropped down to 40%	Now there is complete collapse of public health services in west vidarbha each villages there more than two cases of deadly diseases like cancer ,HIV ,RHD Water level in west vidarbha is below 200 meters ,there is no potable water ,fodder and food for the cotton farmers allowing them to kill themselves ,thanks Gm Techology

VJAS demands ban GM seed trials in India.

“we have asking the all sensitive people in world please come and see the ground reality of west vidarbha whre farmers are killing themselves due crop failure and debt trap ,if Bt.cotton seed is magic then one should answer the reason of massibe genocide of cotton farmers of vidarbha ‘ Tiwari asked.

Vidarbha Jan andolan samiti (VJAS) has urged theUnion government to withdraw the permission granted to grow genetically modified crops in the country and state as it would lead to increased cancer and toxic diseases, said president Kishor Tiwari

As European countries and USA had totally banned all types of BT genetically modified crops and vegetables as they were confirmed to be reasons for cancer and other

deadly diseases, even affecting cattle which graze on these lands.The radiation from the fields where BT seeds are used will spread upto 10 km and can even make the fertile lands barren, he said. In India, Kerala has been declared a genetically modified free state

and Uttaranchal has followed this idea, he said, urging Chief Minister Maharashtra to declare vidarbha too GM free.

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