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DECCAN HERALD

Wednesday, December 2, 1998

Operation cremation Monsanto

Raitha Sangha to burn Bollgard cotton in Bellary

BANGALORE, Dec 1 (DHNS)

Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) has threatened to reduce to ashes on Wednesday one more field of Bollgard cotton, grown as a trial by multinational Mahyco Monsanto at Bannikallu village in Bellary district.

At a press conference here today, KRRS President Prof M D Nanjundaswamy said the Sangha activists were destroying the crop with the consent of farmers owning the fields.

He said, the Sangha proposes to educate and enlist the support of farmers in their struggle against US-based Monsanto`s ''illegal`` and ''harmful`` field trials of genetically engineered cotton variety, which allegedly contains the dreaded ''terminator gene``, which renders the seeds sterile.

He gave a call to all farmers in whose lands the field trials on the Monsanto`s cotton variety were being conducted to burn down the crop. ''The farmers did not suspect that the experiment on cotton variety would risk the viability of not only his farm, but of his entire community``, Prof Nanjundaswamy said.

As part of their ''Operation Cremation Monsanto``, KRRS activisits had burnt down Bollgard cotton crop in half an acre of land at Maledagudda village in Raichur district on Saturday last.

Prof Nanjundaswamy said the campaign against the Mahyco Monsanto`s field trials will be intensified and taken to other parts of the country where the trials were being conducted.

TO MOVE COURT: Prof Nanjundaswamy said his Sangha will file criminal cases against Monsanto and the Union and the State government for allowing the company to gamble with the future of Indian agriculture.

Questioning Monsanto`s claim about higher yields by Bollgard and its capacity to resist pests, including the much feared bollworm, Prof Nanjundaswamy said the company had not taken any bio-safety measures like creating a buffer zone around the genetically engineered cotton crop to reduce bio-pollution.

Despite regular application of manure and pesticide on the cotton variety during field trials, the plants are infested with bollworm, the pest which Bollgard is supposed to control, Prof Nanjundaswamy claimed.

Further, the Bollgard plants have grown miserably to less than half the size of traditional cotton plants in adjacent fields, Prof Nanjundaswamy contended.

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