The Hindu : Front Page : Agriculture Secretary to take stock of Coimbatore protest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 13, 2006
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Agriculture Secretary to take stock of Coimbatore protest

G. Satyamurty

Government views drive against genetically engineered paddy seriously

COIMBATORE: Agriculture Secretary Surjit K. Choudhary rushed to Coimbatore to take stock of the situation arising out the drive carried out by some organisations against cultivating genetically engineered paddy.

Last Friday, hundreds of farmers and activists uprooted genetically engineered paddy crop on a trial field in Ramanathapuram village at Alandurai, 30 km from here. The local police had registered a case against Tamil Nadu Farmers' Association president K. Chellamuthu and 89 others. The Government took a serious view of the incident and wanted the Agriculture Secretary to look into the issue.

Sharing his views on the incident, Mr. Choudhary wondered how anyone could take law into their hands. "If you want to oppose something, there are ways of democratic protest. You could have given a memorandum to the Collector and requested him to monitor whether the prescribed regimen is followed," he told The Hindu .

He pointed out that the Union Environment Ministry had prescribed a certain regimen for the trial of GE seeds and the district administration had to ensure that this was complied with.

Mr. Choudhary said that biotechnology was one of the most important developments in the field of agriculture. "You cannot stay away from it in the World Trade Organisation system."

Technology transfer

He held the lack of technology transfer in agriculture the single most important reason for backwardness in farming practices. "China and Israel are far ahead of India in agricultural productivity because of technology," he said. He wondered whether "bigotry and prejudice" should be allowed to come in the way of introducing technology and improving productivity at a time when the returns from agriculture were declining. "By trying to block technology you are trying to ruin agriculture in Tamil Nadu," he said.

Mr. Choudhary added that biotechnology should be used in a "positive manner" and it was imperative to train farmers in the latest advances.

"We should also think of ways and means to bring new technologies within the reach of the poor farmer. And no prejudice should be permitted to prevent technology," he said.

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