India's Union Government is allocating some US$ 86.3 million to push a Green Revolution into India's eastern states. It is a hefty sum to bring a ghost back to life. But it is not just the amount that farmers, activists, scientists and consumer groups were raising their voices against at a recent workshop in Odisha. It is the government's disregard for the alternatives that exist and the havoc that the Green Revolution has already wreaked on the country.
“The Green Revolution that has been undertaken in India in the past has proven itself ecologically unsustainable, environmentally hazardous, economically non-viable and is a threat to the existence of small/marginal farmers and share croppers. It has left its irreparable socio-cultural, environmental, health and economic impacts on the farming communities and consumers,” wrote the workshop participants in their declaration endorsed by representatives from Odisha, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi.
Among those who signed the declaration with farmers and activists were Prof Manhar Adil, advisor to the Chattisgarh Agriculture Minister, Mr. Vijay Kumar, Jt Secretary in Rural Development Department Government of India, Prof T K Bose, member of the erstwhile State Agriculture Commission of West Bengal, and Dr VS Vijayan, former Chairman of Kerala State Biodiversity Board. These government people concur that that the “Green Revolution only denotes negative implications for the Eastern region and there is nothing to rejoice about the current proposals.”
The main line that the Union Government is using for reintroducing the Green Revolution is that its first incarnation in the sixties was confined to only 10% of the country, and so it's high time to cover more ground. At the same time, it considers the eastern states “agriculturally backward” and claims that the only way to develop them is through the Green Revolution model. The government's ambitions are outlined in its “Strategic Plans for Green Revolution in Odisha”, which calls for: selection and adoption of suitable hybrid varieties, increased use of fertilizer, increased mechanization, and promotion of export-oriented agriculture. This eastern region of India may in fact become the breeding ground for a second Green Revolution not only for India, but for the entire South Asian region, as the Indian Prime Minister has recently announced the setting up of a Borlaug Institute for South Asia in Bihar for that very purpose.
The push for hybrid rice is central to this second Green Revolution. In July, the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar announced the formation of a central-level task force to push hybrid rice varieties in the country. The task force will explore public-private-partnerships for the production, procurement and marketing of seeds. Pawar also made it clear that their intention is to “adopt the Chinese model for hybrid rice production” and a team from his ministry has already visited China for this purpose.
The “Chinese model” refers to China's policy decision in the 1980s to shift to hybrid rice on a massive scale, and to put all the necessary support towards its promotion and cultivation. At a government sponsored workshop in Kolkata, the agriculture minister revealed how it's going to be done: “Seed production of hybrid rice will have to be planned and implemented with active association of state agricultural universities and public and private sector seed-producing companies to meet the needs of the farmers.”
Farmers in the eastern states, however, know the real score with hybrid rice. “Hybrid rice experience from all over Asia shows that this is a failed technology increasingly rejected by farmers and consumers; importantly, the promotion of hybrid rice ignores the available diversity in the region. This is certainly not the answer to any problem of the farmers. Neither is GM rice,” they articulated in the workshop declaration.
For Natbar Sarangi, a farmer in Odisha who grows 342 traditional varieties of rice, using hybrid rice is out of the question. “If I use hybrid rice, it will make me dependent on the market and seed companies and I don't want that. And because it will require synthetic chemicals, it will pollute both my pond and my paddy, which I can't allow to happen.”
The Union Government seems to have forgotten that while the Green Revolution might not have been formally introduced in the eastern states, it has made inroads nonetheless “and left well-documented negative impacts including driving many farmers into greater indebtedness and suicides,” noted the Odisha workshop participants. At the same time Eastern India still has “invaluable genetic diversity of crops which farmers have developed over centuries to suit various growing conditions and preferences and this is a heritage which is endangered by the promotion of Green Revolution seeds and technology.”
There is no good reason to resurrect the ghost of the Green Revolution. It is much better to support the living-systems that farmers in eastern India have generated with their own seeds.
11 Nov 2010 | Jyotika Sood
I'm a journalist working with Centre for Science and Enviornment publication Down to Earth.
I wish to do a story on this Second green revolution where rice would be promoted at a large scale.
Would like to meet your experts who are doing extensive work on this.
I'm based in New Delhi and my mobile number is 09999689506.
Kindly forward me the contacts of the persons working on this project
Regards Jyotika