Page 343 - DECO503_INTERNATIONAL_TRADE_AND_FINANCE_ENGLISH

Unit 29 : Functions of WTO/GATT

seed, provided both the farmer and the seller were farmers. They won the case. Subsequently, under Notes
pressure from seeds industry, the Plant Variety Act was amended and the farmer’s right to save and
exchange seeds was declared illegal.
Dr. Vandana Shiva on the basis of these experiences concludes : ‘The Seed Act in designed to ‘enclose’
the free economy of farmers’ seed varieties. Once farmers’ seed supply is destroyed through
compulsory registration by making it illegal to plant unlicensed varieties, farmers are pushed into
dependency on corporate monopoly of patented seeds. The Seed Act is therefore the hand maiden of
the Patent Amendment Acts, which have introduced patent on seed.
Secondly, it may be noted that prior to this Act as a result of globalization, 80 per cent of the seeds
were farmers’ own varieties which have been saved, produced and exchanged freely. The balance of
20 percent was supplied by the public sector seed companies. Under pressure from World Bank, the
Seed Policy of 1988 started to dismantle the robust public sector in favour of private sector companies
and multinationals. This is made clear in the objectives of the Seed Act 2004 which is aimed at replacing
farmers’ saved seeds with seeds from private sector seed industries.
Thirdly, the Seed Act introduces Inspector Raj and gives the inspectors the power to enter and search
premises, even to break open any container and any door. This is tantamount to the creation of a
‘Seed Police’. The fine for seed exchange and barter of unregistered seed is up to ` 25,000.
In a very angry comment, Dr. Vandana Shiva states : The2004 Seed Act has nothing positive to offer
to farmers in India but offer a promise of a monopoly to private seed industries, which has already
pushed thousands of our farmers to suicide through dependency and debt caused by unreliable,
high dependency and non-renewable seeds.” The 1996 Act used to serve the country well and should
have been continued “It is the MNC seed industry that need regulation and not the small farmers of
our country without whose seed freedom the country will have no food sovereignty and food security.”
Fourthly, methods of agriculture were excluded from patentability in the Indian Patent Act, 1970 to
ensure that the seed, the first link in the food chain, was held as a common property resource in the
public domain. The farmers were guaranteed the inalienable right to save, exchange and improve
upon the seed. But subsequent amendments of 1970 Act have opened the floodgates for patenting of
genetically engineered seeds. It needs to be emphasized that patents are monopolies and they grant
exclusive rights which prevent farmers from producing, saving and exchange of seeds from farmer-
to-farmer. In other words, patents on seed convert seed saving into an “intellectual property right.”
The entire controversy veers round corporate rights versus farmers’ rights. The US Government in
collusion with WTO has been demanding monopoly protection for Transnational Corporation (TNCs)
which control seed industry. It implies that under the garb of globalisation, whereas greater emphasis
should be given to liberalization and competition should have been promoted, the Plant generatic
resources (PGR) legislation aims to create monopoly through the agency of IPRs. In other words,
PGR legislation is a conflict between farmers and seed industry and between the public domain and
private profits, between an agriculture that produces and reproduces diversity and that consumes
diversity and produces uniformity.
Prof. Borlaug stated in a very forth-right manner : “We battled against patenting. Late Glen Anderson
(of International Wheat and Maize Research Institute) and I went on record in India as well as other
places against patenting and always stood for free exchange of germ plasm.”
The new Seed Act proposed in 2004 could for ever destroy farmers rights and thus destroy biodiversity
of our seeds and crops. It robs the farmers of their freedom and establishes a seeds dictatorship. Such
a dangerous legislation is anti-farmer as it establishes TNC totalitarianism. It should, therefore, be
scrapped.

Norman Borlaug, the scientist who pioneered the Green Revolution and was the
recipient of Nobel Peace Prize at a press conference held on 8 February 1996
th
expressed his concern against private companies and TNCs gaining control of the
plant genetic resources seeds and patenting plants.

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