Farmer launches GM petition

A WESTERN Victorian farmer has launched a petition on popular social activism website change.org, calling for the government to introduce checks to prevent unwanted contamination from genetically modified (GM) crops.

Farmer Bob Mackley from Duchembegarra, near Natimuk, said he was motivated to create the petition for several reasons.

He said he had directly suffered as a result of GM material being washed onto his property in January 2011 and had to wear the cost of spraying the GM canola volunteers out.

“There have been many GM contamination cases like mine around the country but there is no system in place to protect us from GM crops,” he said.

Chief executive at biotechnology peak body CropLife, Matthew Cossey, said the issue of "contamination" was not unique to GM.

“Every farmer has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to stop what they do on their farm from affecting their neighbours or public land," Mr Cossey said.

"That applies across the board, none of these issues are unique to GM."

Because these issues are not unique to GM the same common law rules can compensate for damage caused by the unwanted and unreasonable presence of GM crops as for damage caused by any other crop.

But Mr Mackley said the mantra used by the biotechnology regarding growing GM food crops, ‘the right to choose’ applied both ways.

“We should have the right to choose not to grow GM and to be able to market it as such.

“That’s the difference, other weed seeds within the crop don’t incur the cost penalty GM contamination does.”

His message appears to have won over many people, with the petition now signed by over 30,000 people.

“It comes down to not having the proper steps in place when the technology was introduced.

“We were told how wonderful it all would be and a whole bunch of issues were railroaded out the way.

“Whether you believe GM crops are safe to eat or not, the fact of the matter is that some people don’t want to eat GM and they should have the right not to.

“I want to be able to market my grain as non-GM.”

Mr Mackley also said he wanted to see more information in labelling laws.

“I believe not having labelling could hurt entire industries, if people can’t be sure their canola isn’t GM free because there are no labelling restrictions then they might just not buy canola oil at all.”

queenslandcountrylife

Genetically modified crops hold the key to food security

In the debate over whether India should go for transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops or not, there is a viewpoint that supports its ability to enhance production and increase food security, while against the motion there's a word of caution on the grounds that it will encourage monoculture and end diversity of traditional crops. Besides, biotech crops are still not perceived as fully safe for consumption, although nothing is proven scientifically.

The issue is significant as India's economic security depends heavily on agriculture, sustaining 58% of the population, as against 75% at the time of Independence. But since the onset of green revolution in the late 1960s, the country has made impressive strides in agriculture with better use of chemicals, high-yielding cereals and other plant varieties. The green revolution has boosted agricultural output substantially, increasing it 2.85 times to 235 million tones helping feed the country's population that has swollen from 440 million to 1.2 billion.

Saving millions from starvation, self-sufficiency is a driver for poverty reduction and economic transformation in rural areas. The mid-'90s marked a shift in which agricultural slowed down causing stagnation or even decline in farmers' income and agrarian distress turned serious with passing time. Agriculture is no more productive for small or marginal farmers, many of whom have committed suicide because of debt burden.

Studies show 40% farmers would switch over to another job. Sudhir Panwar, president of the Kisan Jagriti Manch, says "farmers are in agriculture by compulsion, not by choice. The impact is most visible in UP, which has seen net decline of 49 lakh agriculture workers in the last five years. The NSS report shows number of total agriculture workers went down from 4.03 crore in 2004-05 to 3.69 crore in 2009-10 and 3.54 crore in 2011-12," said Panwar.

Reason is not far to seek. In spite of the success of green revolution, contribution of agriculture and allied sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) has fallen from 61% to 19% in the last five decades. Presently, India sustains 16.8% of world's population on 4.2% of world's water resources and 2.3% of global land. Per capita availability of resources is four to six times less compared to the world average which will decrease further with increasing demographic pressure and consequent diversion of the land for non-agricultural uses.

While sparing virtually negligible land from agricultural use, around 51% of India's geographical area is already under cultivation compared to 11% of the world average. The present cropping intensity of 136% has registered increase of only 25% since Independence. Rain-fed dryland constitutes 65% of the total net sown area. There is also an unprecedented degradation of land (107 million hectare) and groundwater resource, and also fall in growth rate of total factor productivity.

Experts at the UN Food & Agricultural Organization (FAO) say by 2050 global population is expected to increase by 40% while associated global food production needs will expand by more than 70% with a rapidly growing middle-class in developing countries. India's population will grow to 1.3 billion by 2017, which means fresh demand for foodgrain in terms of quantity, quality and affordability, so current agricultural output needs to be doubled against odds like changing climatic conditions, declining ratio of arable land to population and water getting scarcer.

Agriculture intersects toughest challenges arising mainly from grim competition for supplies of fresh water, with its share dropping to 75% from the present 83% in the near future, in the wake of growing industrial and domestic sectors. Presently, excess exploitation of groundwater has caused sharp depletion of water table in central Punjab, Haryana, west Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. In UP, over 260 out of total 800 blocks are already declared 'dark zones'. Yet, government has not taken water conservation measures for political reasons.

Overuse of canal water in south-west Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan is leading to water logging and development of secondary salinity. Conjunctive use of water and diversification of rice-wheat is required. The problem is compounded by water wastage, around 18.4 million m3/day. Utilising waste water after treatment for irrigation is yet to be made part of water conservation policy. Micro-irrigation and resource conservation technologies (RCTs), economising on water and nutrients need to be promoted in a big way.

Poor soil fertility is another challenge. Around 25 million hectares of land in the country has low productivity of less than 1 tonne/hectare due to deficiencies and toxicities of nutrients. Adoption of cost-effective technology to improve this mass of land could add 25 million tonnes of food grains to the national food basket per annum. TOI