Dubbing Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh as ill-informed, Shiva said, “The remarks of Agriculture Minister are ill-informed as farmers are not committing suicides due to their personal reasons, it’s the genetically modified crops introduced by Monsanto through fraudulent means which <g data-gr-id="31">is</g> forcing cultivators to take the extreme steps.”
Elaborating further Shiva said, “Since 1995, when the WTO came into effect and International Trade Law was used by companies like Monsanto to enter new markets and destroy indigenous industry, India’s farming sector has suffered greatly. Even though Indian law does not allow for the patentability of life forms such as seed, Monsanto has, admittedly, written a law for the same in the WTO.”
“Since 1995, about 3,00,000 farmers have been driven to suicide in the country through a cycle of debt and crop failures. In the cotton belt of Maharashtra, where 95 <g data-gr-id="33">per cent</g> of the cotton seed market is controlled by agriculture company ‘Monsanto’, has the highest suicide rates amongst farmers and sits at the top of the table even now,” Shiva said, the founder of Navdanya which is a network of seed keepers and organic producers spread across 18 states in the country.
Shiva further said, “Some 84 <g data-gr-id="25">per cent</g> of suicides in cotton belt have been attributed to Monsanto’s Bt Cotton as in its literature and advertising Monsanto claims reduced pesticide use, but has admitted on its own portal that regular spraying during crop season is required and that the failure of its product “posed a significant threat to the nearly 5 million farmers who were planting the product in India.”
Notably, Union Agriculture Minister had drawn criticism for his answer in the Parliament saying that love affairs and impotency are also among other several reasons for farmers’ suicides.
Later, it comes to the notice of Millennium Post that Singh was not the first agriculture minister, who answered on the basis of National Crime Control Data compiled from different states.
Other ministers who had told the house the love affairs and impotency as the causes of farmer’s suicide were Sharad Pawar in August and February in 2013, Tariq Anwar in February 2014 and Charan Das Mahant in March 2012, who were agriculture ministers during the UPA regime.