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Scam of genocidal proportions


India has a million problems right from the smallest scale to the Himalayan. I will try and touch upon these problems at some points of time.

I can be very sentimental about Agriculture and the misery being faced by our rural population. But today I just want to point to one little snippet from morning papers::

Life has been brought to a virtual standstill in Chawadal village in Haveri district by the truant monsoon. Manjunath Soorvagi (35), who would have normally sown maize and cotton in his five acres of unirrigated land by early June, only sowed in late July this year. “I could not have delayed sowing any longer because the Bt cotton seeds that I had would have turned sterile,” he says

The Hindu

Now think about it, seriously, would drive your car if you knew brakes were not working? Would you sow the seeds if you know what you are sowing is a futile exercise?

Farmers like Manjunath are not exceptional nor are they idiots. They are perfectly rational people trying to make a living. There are a whole generation of farmers who have decide to do the futile experiement – ploughing in more money, effort and prayers – just to avoid their investments to go a big waste.


The BT seeds are blatantly mis-sold with sky-high promises of good crop, pest resistance and drought resistances when in fact they fail in all these parameters. Simply put, companies like Monsanto are ripping off farmers with false promises and high hopes, and selling products that hardly stands the test of conditions. These performance parameters are fulfilled only in “ideal conditions” or test like conditions. Even a fool can tell you that’s a scam.

So, what does Government do? Nothing.

Are you surprised? Did you really expect government to do anything? Or more precisely, can government do anything about it? Answers are all negative.

Unfortunately, we have been quite for a long time. Long enough for lakhs of farmers to commit suicide in desperation. If there ever was a scam of genocidal proportion, this is it.


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