INDIA GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEED FAILS, ADDING TO POOR FARMERS' BURDEN

DHUMNAGAR, India (UCAN) -- At least 500,000 farmers have been left in
the lurch in eastern India after the failure of a crop of genetically
modified maize.

The Bihar state government now plans legal action against the
distributors of the maize seeds produced by the U.S.-based company
Monsanto, while a Catholic bishop has cautioned people about the traps
of globalization.

Puranamashi Ram, Bihar's food minister, told UCA News March 26 that
farmers, mostly in the state's 20 northern districts, cultivated
Monsanto's "900 M" variety maize on 150,000 hectares of land.

"The plants have grown copiously and even borne large-sized corncob,
(but) to the shock of our farmers, they have no grains within them,"
he said.

Bishop Victor Henry Thakur of Bettiah describes the crop failure as "a
tip of the iceberg" with regard to the ruin that he says globalization
is wreaking on unsuspecting people. His diocese, based about 950
kilometers east of New Delhi, covers part of the area where the crop
failed.

While expressing solidarity with the affected farmers, the bishop told
UCA News that they should not discard indigenous seeds and knowledge.
People should know that transnational firms are interested only in
making money, and not helping the poor, he remarked.

Genetically modified organisms such as the 900 M maize have had their
original genetic makeup altered in an attempt to enhance or produce
desirable characteristics, such as increased yield or resistance to
disease.

Local people say distributors cheated farmers in selling them
"unapproved" seeds that they promised would yield three times what
local varieties produce.

The state commissioner for agriculture, Madan Mohan Singh, told UCA
News March 28 that the government directed officials to file criminal
cases against the suppliers of the Monsanto maize.

Nityanand Shukla, 47, a farmer in West Champaran district, said he
sowed the seed in November as a winter crop and by March corncobs
appeared as usual. He opened one corncob to check the size and quality
of the grains and found none in it. News of this spread and others too
found that their crop had failed.

Shukla said he had also cultivated indigenous maize on a hectare of
land and the plants "have developed well and carry good grains. But
this won't make up for the heavy loss I have incurred due to the
American seeds."

For each hectare of 900 M maize planted, farmers typically spent 3,600
rupees (US$76) for 60 kilograms of the imported seed. The government
estimates that some 8.2 million kilograms of the maize seed has been
sold in Bihar.

Shukla says people opted for the new seed to get rich. Indigenous
varieties yield on average 3,000 kilograms a hectare that could be
sold for 18,000 rupees (some US$380). But the new variety promised
9,000 kilograms a hectare.

Nesar Ahmad, president of Bihar state's Kisan Sangh (farmers union),
told UCA News that the farmers are planning protest rallies to seek
government intervention. The union leader, a Muslim, said at least
500,000 affected farmers own less than 0.3 hectare of land and are too
poor to file a case seeking compensation.

Jesuit Brother Thomas Mannaramattathil, director of a 20-hectare farm
owned by the Jesuits in Bettiah, said he did not use the hybrid maize
because he did not think the genetically modified seeds would suit the
local climate.

"They may give high yield sometimes, but indigenous seeds are cheap in
cultivation and better in quality and taste," he told UCA News. He
also said that while indigenous maize is a major food crop in the
state, the genetically modified maize is generally used as cattle feed
in some European countries.

Sachitanand Upadhayaya, a senior agricultural genetic scientist with
the state government, told UCA News examination of the corncobs and
some seeds revealed genetic deficiencies that hinder pollination.

Krishna Kumar Banka, regional dealer of the Monsanto seed in Bihar's
northern region, told UCA News that a monthlong cold spell in January
might have adversely affected the grain formation. He dismissed as
wild the allegations of genetic deficiencies in the seed, which he
said was marketed "only after thorough trials and tests."

Media reported Monsanto officials as saying that unfavorable weather
conditions also affected other hybrid crops in the region.

According to Upadhayaya, the cold wave did not affect indigenous
plants.