Relevance : GS Paper III
Theme of the Article
How India can shift its agriculture from a high-yield ideal to a high-value one.
Why has this issue cropped up?
PepsiCo was suing small farmers in India for growing a potato variety that is used in its Lay’s chips. However, due to national and international pressure PepsiCo backtracked.
The downward spiral of small-scale farming
- So many small farmers are, like the ones targeted by PepsiCo, reliant, directly or indirectly, on proprietary seeds.
- Typically these seeds are grown in high input (fertilizer-pesticide-irrigation) environments that, over time, erode local biodiversity.
- Between the expense of buying these seeds and inputs, and the loss of the skills and social relationships needed to do otherwise (through the saving and exchange of seeds of indigenous varieties), small-scale farming looks set to continue on its downward spiral of lower income, status and dignity.
Are farmers to blame for relying on proprietary seeds?
- No one can blame farmers for thinking that proprietary seeds are better. Since the days of the Green Revolution, agricultural extension officers have taught farmers to buy ever-higher-yielding seeds.
- The Plant Variety Protection law permits farmers not only to save and resow (multiply) seeds, but also to sell them to other farmers, no matter what the original source of the seeds is.
The concern with proprietary seeds
Where farmers could be using genetically distinctive seeds adapted to local conditions and farming traditions, they are instead adapting local conditions and traditions in order to use genetically standardized seeds, to ruinous effect.
Time for paradigm shift
- To get a sense of what can be done, it may be useful to take a peep into recent regulatory efforts in Europe.
- The EU permits and encourages, inter alia, the use and marketing for organic agriculture without having to comply with most of the arduous registration and certification requirements.
- EU is supporting the creation markets and marketplaces facilitating trade of heterogeneous seeds.
How can India shift its agriculture from a high-yield ideal to a high-value one?
- First, small farmers must be educated and encouraged with proper incentive structures, to engage with agriculture that conserves and improves traditional/desi (heterogeneous) seeds in situ, rather than with “improved”, proprietary varieties.
- Second, an immutable record-keeping system, perhaps block-chain or DLT, is needed to break the link between the profitable and the proprietary. Such a system would allow India to keep proper track of where and how their seeds/propagation materials and the genetic resources contained therein are being transferred and traded.
- Third, India’s invaluable traditional ecological knowledge systems need to be revived and made a part of mainstream agricultural research, education and extension services. For example, know-how contained in ancient Indian treatises like the Vrikshayurveda and the Krishi Parashar falls within the scope of what international conventions such as the Convention on Biological Diversity refer to as ‘indigenous and traditional technologies’.
Conclusion
The lawsuit by PepsiCo must be a wake-up call to the government and policymakers who need to do much more to secure sustainable rural societies, protect soil health and promote seed sovereignty for the economic development of Indian farmers and of the entire nation.
