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Technology, patents , removal of competition and government policies are the main weapons used by multinational seed companies to control farmers, Kavitha Kuruganti , organic farming activist and senior member of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), said here on Saturday .

Speaking at the Covai Seeds Festival on the politics of seeds and the importance of traditional varieties, Kuruganti said many corporations use patents to ensure that farmers return to them. “Corporations like Monsanto have people employed just to spy on farmers and see if they are reusing seeds from their last cultivation. They want farmers to buy fresh batches of seeds from them before every cultivation. Such companies also use technology to create and sell hybrid and genetically modified varieties, where the crop-shed seeds can not be planted again for longer periods. They buy up smaller companies, ensure only their products are on shop shelves and get government policies also to swing in their direction,” she said.

Many traditional varieties of crops, which were nutrient-rich and often survived without fertilizers and pesticides, began disappearing during the green revolution, Kuruganti said. “The government those days had a Malthusian worry about the growing population and how agricultural produce may not provide enough food for them. They began focusing only on higher yields and productivity. Entire food security was also focused on rice and wheat. There was no focus on good seeds.”

“Traditional varieties of crops were bred by farmers over thousands of years. Our farmers had put in centuries of work and were constantly breeding crops to make them climate-resilient and pest-resilient. There were separate seeds meant for every growing condition, specific cultures and every kind of soil. In paddy alone, there are around 75,000 well documented varieties, compared to the 10 to 15 varieties available today. However, this diversity got eroded once we focused only on productivity.”

However, agriculture activist said government policies are slowly changing after there has been surplus production of horticulture and agriculture crops every year, Kuruganti said. “ Now the policy makers are focusing on environment, environmental health, nutritional problems, safe food and climate change weathering crops instead of just high yields.”

