Asia: Farmers grow cynical with corporate push on genetic engineering

by Kanaga Raja

Geneva, 31 Oct 2000 -- The controversy surrounding genetic engineering is heating up in Asia, with the transnational food and agriculture industry -  worth over $700 billion a year - moving to bring its patented biotechnologies into the region’s farmlands.

According to a new report from a joint research project involving farmers’ groups, non-governmental organisations and independent scientists across Asia, big corporations are now starting to enlist the efforts of a number of international non-profit agencies to facilitate the transfer of these technologies and help secure the necessary political and legal landscape for their worldwide adoption.

One of the most focused promoters of gene technologies in Asia is the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA). ISAAA portrays itself as helping to transform the lives of small farmers by acting as an “honest broker” to mediate the flow of patented genetic engineering applications from TNCs to rural communities in the South.

But the new report, titled “ISAAA in Asia: Promoting Corporate Profits in the Name of the Poor”, says that in reality ISAAA is helping carry out an agenda set by TNCs in the name of the region’s rural poor.

The report (available on GRAIN’s website at www.grain.org/adhoc.htm) adds that through ISAAA, industry is using local people across Asia, from illustrious scientists and high-level policymakers to anonymous small farmers, to promote biotechnology and expand markets for its own benefit.

“ISAAA’s most critical failing has been that it has never stopped to ask small farmers - its supposed target group - what they think the problems and solutions are, and what role, if any, biotechnology can play. This raises fundamental questions about ISAAA’s accountability and legitimacy,” the report notes.

Indeed, farmers across Asia are increasingly cynical about the technological fixes pushed onto them, allegedly to overcome production problems and reap big profits.

Orly Marcellana, a farmer in the Quezon province of the Philippines, says, “Nobody from the government, nor from these companies, ever asked us what our problems are. I’m sure they don’t even care. All they want is to make profit. For us farmers, it’s a never-ending story with these improved seeds. Every time they are introducing a new ‘miracle’ variety, after some time it turns out to be not so miraculous after all. And then, there they are with yet another ‘miracle’ and again they promise us that we will be the first to benefit. But after all these ‘miracles’ our conditions are still the same. We are poor as ever. Do they really think that the farmers still believe in these ‘miracles’?”

According to Shaban Ali, a farmer in Shekher Dair, Bangladesh, “The problem is that farmers are helpless because government and the scientists are collaborating with the companies to destroy us. This is not science, it is politics.”

A similar assessment is provided by Witoon Boonchado, a farmer leader in Roi Ed, Thailand, who says, “The GE crops are happening because of the greed of TNCs. This cannot give us any benefit. TNCs are the sole beneficiaries. There are many alternatives and sustainable ways to solve farmers problems.”

The report then goes on to point out some of the “lowlights” of ISAAA’s projects.

In Malaysia, ISAAA has been involved in the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) papaya varieties resistant to papaya ringspot virus.  The report states that this disease is not a problem faced by small farmers, but on recently established export-oriented papaya plantations. The GE fruits have raised concerns in the region about biosafety and about their viability for trade because of poor quality.

In Indonesia, through the delivery of tomatoes resistant to spotted wilt virus, ISAAA has been able to edge open the doors to the deployment of GE crops in general.

According to the report, the tomatoes were developed by the Swiss agrochemical giant Novartis and Wageningen Agricultural University in the Netherlands.

While the benefits to Novartis, which wants the seed market, and Wageningen, which holds the patent are clear, what is in it for the Indonesian farmers, the report asks. According to ISAAA, “a solid biotechnology infrastructure.”

In Mexico, from where ISAAA’s projects took off, the agency brokered a deal to transfer Monsanto’s virus resistance genes into potatoes grown by small farmers. But seven years into the work, the report says, no mechanisms have been identified to actually achieve this and farmers say that the viruses the potatoes are engineered against are not a problem for them anyway.-SUNS4773

© 2000, SUNS - All rights reserved. May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service without specific permission from SUNS. This limitation includes incorporation into a database, distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media or broadcast. For information about reproduction or multi-user subscriptions please e-mail <suns@igc.org >