By Dr Vandana Shiva, 10 October 2015
Source: http://vandanashiva.com/?p=317
A whitefly epidemic has devastated the Bt cotton crop in Punjab forcing farmers to use 10-12 sprays – each costing Rs 3200. This, in addition to the high cost of Bt seeds sold by Monsanto-Mahyco Biotech. In Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab, farmers growing non Bt, desi cotton have not been impacted by pests like Bt cotton has. And organic farmers in Punjab had no whitefly attack.
Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprise (ABLE) is clearly un-able to distinguish between science and Industry propaganda.
A scientific approach, to what is happening in Punjab, would draw the inference that pesticides and Bt are creating pests, while non Bt seeds and organic practices are controlling them.
The second step would be to identify the ecological processes that create pests in Bt crops, and in fields using heavy doses of pesticides.
The third scientifically enlightened step would be to promote effective and sustainable pest control technologies such as ecological agriculture, and stop pushing failed and costly technologies like Bt and the pesticides that are peddled with it.
Instead of responding scientifically, the biotechnology lobby group has repeated the false claims of Monsanto – which has trapped millions of our farmers in debt and pushed hundreds of thousands to suicide. 300,000 farmers suicides should be a wakeup call for any nation.
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BT cotton failure in Punjab – Video and Twitter Campaign
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Punjab whitefly epidemic: We need a new agriculture policy
By Dr Vandana Shiva — The Indian Express, 15 October 2015
Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/blogs/punjab-whitefly-epidemic-we-need-a-new-agricultural-policy/
Instead of having to ask farmers to withdraw their agitation, CM Parkash Singh Badal should create conditions that they do not have to agitate.
Read more: http://seedfreedom.info/punjab-whitefly-epidemic-we-need-a-new-agriculture-policy/
‘Corporations Bleeding Rural India, Killing Our Farmers’
Pragya Singh Interviews Vandana Shiva — Outlook, 12 October 2015
Source: http://www.outlookindia.com/article/corporations-bleeding-rural-india-killing-our-farmers/295563
Scientist and longtime activist against genetically modified BT seeds, Dr. Vandana Shiva, talks about why BT has a devastating fallout.
A sudden pest attack has ruined cotton crops in large parts of Punjab, bringing biotech, or BT Cotton back into focus. Farmers who used bio-fertilisers in the Malwa region of the state are said to be safe from this latest pestilence. But those growing BT cotton have lost everything. There are reports of farmer suicides. Dr Vandana Shiva, scientist and longtime activist against genetically modified BT seeds, talks about why BT has a devastating fallout, and the growing pressure from the seeds industry on Prime Minister Modi to change IPR laws in India. Edited excerpts of an email interview with Pragya Singh.
Read More:http://www.navdanya.org/blog/?p=2367
Anna Swaraj: The only way we can rescue Indian farmers from debt and suicide
By Dr Vandana Shiva — Scroll.in, 10 October 2015
Punjab’s experiment with Bt cotton failed, as the recent whitefly attack shows. It’s time we return to regenerative agricultural practices that are ecologically sound.
Fifteen farmers in the fertile belt of Punjab have committed suicide in recent days after whitefly pest devoured two-thirds of the state’s cotton crop, almost all of which is reportedly Bt cotton.
Read more: http://www.navdanya.org/blog/?p=2336
FARMER SUICIDES IN COTTON BELT: WHEN WILL GOVT PROTECT THE FARMERS AND NOT MONSANTO?
By Dr Vandana Shiva — The Citizen, 9 October 2015
How many more farmers have to die, before Indian policy makers understand that Bt Cotton is a failed experiment?
Most of the 300,000 farmers suicides have taken place in the cotton belt which is now predominantly a Bt cotton belt. GMO Bt cotton was supposed to be a pest control technology that would replace pesticides. However Bt cotton has proven to be a pest creating technology, with epidemics of pests that never affected cotton in India before Bt cotton was introduced, illegally in 1998, and with GEAC approval in 2002.
Whitefly which never attacked cotton is now supposed to have devoured 2/3 of the Punjab Bt cotton crop.15 cotton farmers in the fertile belt of Punjab have committed suicide in recent days .
Read more: http://www.navdanya.org/blog/?p=2324
Yield | Testimonies on the suicides of Indian farmers from Vidarbha
a film by Tadpole Artists Collective — August 2014
BT cotton failure in Punjab
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