Changing agriculture

Changing agriculture
TKP, 2-Apr-2010
By Jagannath Adhikari

The use of hybrid seeds is growing in Nepal, especially in vegetables, paddy and maize. These seeds mainly come from India, and their use is more common in the Tarai. We do not know much about the prevalence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs)—both the seeds and the produce of such seeds—in Nepal. But it is likely that GMOs are also prevalent, especially among imported seeds and foods.

Hybrid seeds and GMOs have changed agriculture, especially in developing countries. They produce more output provided they are used with high amounts of inputs in the form of fertilizers, irrigation and other chemicals. As the production of these seeds is expensive, only rich private sector companies and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) can do so. The companies also make the inputs required for these seeds. As a result, the cost of production is extremely high.

Another feature of these modified seeds is that they either do not produce seeds at all because of a terminator gene (genes that cause second-generation seeds to be sterile), or that the productivity declines drastically in the next generation. Therefore, farmers cannot produce their own seeds if they use hybrid or GMO seeds, and they have to buy seeds every year from the companies. As a result, farmers become seed-insecure. This is especially so if a government does not secure the seeds’ supply and control their prices and quality. Because of this, farmers become dependent on companies that produce these seeds.

In the past, farmers used their own open-pollinated seeds, in which the best of the current produce were selected as seeds. This would produce better seeds for the next generation of crops. But improving productivity through this ‘selection’ process takes a longer time.

Though these new seeds are more productive when used with higher inputs, these seeds could ruin farmers in developing countries because of various factors: very high costs of production; seed insecurity; dependence on companies for seeds and inputs; and the possibility that companies take monopolistic advantage and artificially increase the price.

In a country like Nepal—where the government does not have any mechanism to control the quality of seeds and other inputs, or a mechanism that ensures producers and distributors are accountable for their actions—farmers will suffer when low quality and untested seeds are available in the market. This is exactly what happened in Sarlahi and Mahottari with the maize crop. This incident, which lost farmers about Rs. 2 billion, was because of total negligence from government agencies in checking the quality of seeds in the new context of agricultural technology. If farmers had used traditionally-produced open-pollinated seeds, there would not have been such a problem, and farmers would not have been ruined.

Even though hybrid seeds and GMOs could have been developed with an intention of increasing food production, a political-economic analysis of this technology reveals that it has not been beneficial for farmers of poorer nations where government agencies are not prepared to deal with the risks. The farmers’ own knowledge has become obsolete in the light of new technology generated by MNCs. As a result, their dependency on these MNCs for seeds and other inputs has been growing.

On the other hand, increasing costs and possible low selling prices, or a lower output, may ruin farmers. In India, a large number of farmers committed suicide a few years ago when the price of cotton, for which they had used GMO seeds, fell and farmers could not pay the loans taken to use this expensive technology. Moreover, this technology and the control of the whole food system by MNCs are changing the way of life for farmers. They will, in the long run, become a small cog in an assembly line of a food system that is managed by MNCs. If this happens, a country may lose its independence in food production.

In order to deal with such a potentially-risky situation, which has already been observed at a small scale recently, the government needs to develop these technologies locally with the participation of farmers. Similarly, the government must show responsibility in setting up a quality-control mechanism to deal with new inputs and new technologies that are used in farming.

Adhikari is a Martin Chautari researcher with specialisations in food, agriculture and migration