January 6, 2010
By Ch. Narendra
My News
London: The Institute of Science in Society (ISS) found that the largest wave of farmer suicides and ecological nightmare unfolding around Bt cotton. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of ISS exposes the “fudged” data and false claims of ‘successes’ that have perpetrated the humanitarian disaster.
As the cotton growing season drew to a close in the state of Andhra Pradesh, he said that farmer suicides once again became almost daily occurrences. Officially, the total number of suicides within a six-week period between July and August 2009 stood at 15, but opposition parties and farmers’ groups said the true total was more than 150.
Opposition leader N. Chandrababu claimed in a speech that he had the names and addresses of 165 farmers who ended their lives because of the distress caused by the drought. By November, similar reports were coming from anothercotton growing state Maharashtra. Farmers of Katpur village in Amravati district sowed Bt cotton four years ago. Instead of the promised miracle yields, huge debts have driven many to suicide, and cattle were reported dying after feeding on the plants.
However, one ray of hope was that the 5000-odd farmers of the Maharashtra village have decided to shun Bt cotton, and are now growing soybean instead. Some have also taken to organic farming.
“We were cheated by the seed companies. We did not get the yield promised by them, not even half of it. And the expenditure involved was so high that we incurred huge debts. We have heard that the government is now planning commercial cultivation of Bt brinjal. But we do not want Bt seeds of any crop anymore,” said farmer Sahebrao Yawiliker.
Dr Ho said that successive studies in Maharashtra have concluded that indebtedness was a major cause of suicides among farmers. Within a week, two farmers in neighbouring villages in Wardha district killed themselves. Their Btcotton crops were devastated by lalya, a disease that caused the cotton plants to redden and wilt.
The first farmer, 55 year old Laxman Chelpelviar in Mukutban, consumed the pesticide Endoulfan when the first picking from his six-acre farm returned a mere five quintals and an income of Rs15 000, way below his expenses of Rs50 000. The second farmer, 45 year old Daulat Majure in Jhamkola, was discovered by his mother hanging dead from the ceiling. Thecotton yield from his seven-acre farm was a miserable one quintal, worth Rs3 000.(EOM)
http://www.mynews.in/News/Farmer_Suicides_and_Bt_Cotton_Nightmare_Unfolding_in_India_N34532.html