Environmentalist pleads for alternate agri policy

Bangalore, Jan 11 (UNI) Demanding an alternate agriculture policy, noted Environmentalist Vandana Shiva today described the proposed National Agriculture Policy as 'pro-corporate,' which would reduce small and marginal farmers to slaves on their own lands.

Talking to newspersons here, she said India needs an alternate policy that would promote higher yield and reduce cost.

The solution to the agrarian crises, which had claimed thousands of farmers' lives since the 1990s, was organic farming, she said, adding that no farmer had committed suicide for practising organic farming in the country.

Criticising the draft policy, she said the MNCs were 'looting' money from farmers in the form of selling seeds and chemical fertilisers and making them slaves on their own land by bringing in contract farming.

Dr Shiva also referred to the recent controversy of allowing processed foods containing Genetically Modified Organisms and exempting them from regulatory approval.

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