Villagers launch campaign to counter Bt Brinjal

To counter the possible ill effects of commercial cultivation of Bt Brinjal on their traditional crop, villagers at a gram panchayat in Kerala have launched a campaign to showcase their varieties, distribute seedlings and highlight its "medicinal" properties.

People of Mararikulam Panchayat in Alapuzha district hit upon this idea as they fear multinationals will monopolise the seeds market and agricultural input supply.

"They are also concerned about the bio-safety aspect, particularly after Kerala ayurvedic physicians came out openly against Bt brinjal," Mararikulam North Panchayat President Priyesh Kumar told PTI.

As part of the campaign, the panchayat distributed 'Mararikulam brinjal' plants to around 8,000 households in the locality at a week-long exhibition and also participated in a national seminar, which demanded a moratorium on GM crops, as it could affect biodiversity.

"Brinjal cultivation is the basis of livelihood for  many people here and they fear that introduction of new Bt variety would destroy their traditional variety," Kumar said.

Presently more than 200 people cultivate this brinjal, widely recognised as a vegetable of medicinal quality, on a commercial basis in the panchayat, he said.

Kumar demanded that the government set up a mechanism to conduct a detailed field study on impact of Bt Brinjal and felt there was no need to introduce it "as India has sufficient skills in agriculture and crop production like plant breeding and hybridisation."

Kumar also demanded that the Centre hold public hearings on the issue at Mararikulam, where a lot of stakeholders are involved in Brinjal and not just in cities like Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Nagpur and Chandigarh.

He pointed out that Kerala, which had already declared its opposition to GM crops, had been left out from the sittings.

State biodversity board chairman V S Vijayan concurred with Kumar's views against introduction of GM crops in the country, saying there was no justification for bringing in such crops. "The reasons put forward by advocates of GM crops are also not justifiable," he said.

Vijayan said food security of the nation would be in peril if GM crops are used, as the seeds of these crops would be in the hands of multinationals, "who will have a monopoly over the seeds, resulting in farmers having to depend on them."

He also cited recent studies on BT cotton which, he claimed, revealed that the net gain for a farmer from one acre in an organic traditional crop stood at Rs 29,000, while it was just Rs 17,000 in the case of BT cotton.

Vijayan said the Board planned to convene a national meet ton BT crops with a focus on BT brinjal here next month.

Ministers of Agriculture and Forest from other states would be invited for the meet to chalk out an action programme against BT crops, he added.