The Hindu Business Line : Left to caution Govt on sources of seed supply

THE Manmohan Singh Government is to receive another caution notice from the Left parties supporting the United Progressive Alliance from outside - on increasing control of multinational corporations (MNCs) and the corporate sector over sources of seed supply.

The Left is worried that the public sector seed distribution network developed in the 1950s in the form of State seeds corporations and district level seed distribution networks is practically paralysed today.

Instead, a few foreign companies such as Monsanto, Aventis/Bayer CropScience, DuPont, Syngenta and a number of big Indian companies are supplying almost 40 per cent of the seeds that are sowed. And some of these are genetically modified, and after three or four years the farmers have to replace the entire top soil, a senior leader of one of the Left parties told Business Line.

"The public sector network has weakened tremendously during the last seven to eight years. Instead, MNCs, big Indian corporates and even individual private initiatives have emerged as the source for seeds for farmers. This raises concerns about food sovereignty and, therefore, we have decided to press for the speedy revival of the public sector network in seed distribution," a Left party leader said.

Another concern the Left parties intend to raise pertains to land use policy in the country, particularly now that 100-per cent foreign direct investment in real estate through the automatic route has been allowed. Such investment can be used to develop township, housing, built-up infrastructure and construction of development projects.

Consequently, the Left demand is for a detailed land use map for the entire country, clearly demarcating the uses.

"It has to be a special project which decides how much of the land would be used for agriculture, forests, urban settlements, water harvesting and the likes. By using satellites, every portion of the land can be assessed. This is important because if it is not properly planned now, agricultural land will gradually be encroached upon and this will eventually affect agricultural productivity," he said.

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