A Promise Gone Awry

(Hat tip to Ed Bremson, proprietor of the fine blog, The Tao of Politics. Go buy his books.)

Farmer suicide on rise as India's rural crisis deepens

YAVATMAL, India (AFP) - Despite failed crops and mounting debts, the family of Indian cotton farmer Chandrakant Gurenule never believed his suicide threats until he set himself alight and fled their home in flames.

The ambitious 34-year-old bought the latest, expensive, high-yield genetically-modified cotton seeds for his 15-acre (six-hectare) farm in this parched corner of India's vast rural hinterland only for his crops to fail for two successive years.

He sold the pair of bullocks he used to plough the fields, and told his wife -- whose wedding jewellery had already been given to unofficial moneylenders -- there was no hope left.

He sat inside his home, doused himself in kerosene and lit a match.

His death on April 1 was one of the latest in a crisis that saw more than 4,100 farmers commit suicide in the western state of Maharashtra alone in 2004, according to a state government-backed report based on police figures.

Why, you ask?

Desperate and debt-ridden with loan sharks demanding up to 120 percent annual interest, the failed harvests and tumbling prices have driven businesses to the wall and farmers to suicide.

OK, but why is it so expensive to farm cotton in India?

Well, two words: American greed.

Three years ago, the Gurenules, persuaded by their local farm agent, took the first step to move into raising GM (ed. note Genetically Modified) crops, and trials gave good results.

They increased the amount they bought the following year, even though the cost of one bag of seed was 1,600 rupees, compared with the 450 rupees they used to pay, but that year's crop failed because of drought.

So they bought even more as part of a 70,000-rupee (1,500-dollar) cultivation bill. [T]he crop failed when it was washed away by too much rain. [...]

Investigators for India's monopoly monitors earlier this month accused US biotech group Monsanto, which has a tight grip on the GM market, of overpricing its cotton seeds, charging so-called "technology fees" on seed packets.

The investigators called the price "exorbitant" and said it "imposes unjustified costs on the farmers by way of manipulation of prices".

Monsanto declined to comment on the investigation but said "based on interactions with key stakeholders" it had reduced its "technology fees" for the coming season.

That's not quite true, however:

Delta and Pine Land Company announces first quarter fiscal 2006 operating results, acquires Indian seed company.

(FULL DISCLOUSE I control a small stake in Delta And Pine Land Company, less than one percent).

The whole promise of GM was to increase crop yields and drive down prices for poorer nations. I invested in a company that specialized (at that time) in cotton, because it was a non-consumable, meaning it was not going to be eaten by humans or feed animals, thus its benefits would greatly outweigh any "Frankenfood"-type concerns. Monsanto is a direct competitor of DLP, and while I was tempted, I felt Monsanto's other product lines were too risky, environmentally speaking.

So here's a product designed to improve life for what amounts to subsistence farming: cheap, hardy, and higher yielding.

So what does Monsanto do? Jacks up the price. And now we see 9,000 farmers have committed suicide for the benefit of Monsanto's bottom line.

Disgraceful.