Stating this, Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security president Devinder Sharma said that the new crop of genetically-engineered seeds called `suicide seeds' would destroy the strong foundations of India's food self-sufficiency bringing millions of resource-poor farmers under the yoke of private seed industry.

Much of the negative impact would be felt in the two frontline agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana, which form the food bowl of the country. The forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, a collective of some of well-known policy makers, planners, agricultural scientists, economists, farmers and environmentalists, had earlier been instrumental in forcing the Centre to ban entry of "terminator" gene.

After the US-based Delta and Pine Land Inc, the biggest cotton seed company in the world, jointly with the US Department of Agriculture applied for a patent on the "terminator" technology in 87 countries including India, it has now been revealed that almost every other major seed and agro-chemical company was in the process of developing its own version of "terminator" seeds.

Seed multinationals like Novarits, AstraZeneca, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Rhone Poulenc and Du Pont have perfected technologies that were an improvement over "terminator".

These companies had introduced genetic traits that can turn on and off the reproductive capability of the plant with the help of an external chemical "inducer" mixed with the company's patented agro-chemicals. Such technologies would force the farmers to buy the seed afresh from the companies every year. In other words, "suicide seeds" would ensure profit security for the seed companies without bringing in any increase in crop productivity.

Farmers in Punjab, Haryana and other parts of the country would soon be planting seeds that would produce grains when sprayed with a carefully prescribed mix of the company's proprietary pesticides, fertiliser and herbicide. For instance, the latest version of AstraZeneca seeds had been engineered to become stunted or otherwise less productive if not sprayed regularly with an array of company's chemicals, claimed Devinder Sharma. Monsanto's new seeds would not germinate unless exposed to special chemicals.

The forum for Biotechnology and Food Security is of the view that in a country, where 90 per cent of 400 million farmers, still save seed from each harvest for replanting in the next season, the new crops of "suicide seeds" would take away the right of the farmers to keep their own seeds. Irrespective of the legal provisions made available, the new technology would bypass the protection granted through constitutional provisions.

Unfortunately, the private seed industry in our country remains immune to these harmful developments in bio-technology. The seed industry says that such technologies would provide them an incentive to produce better seeds. Not realising that the "suicide seeds" would only exacerbate the shift from food self-sufficiency to total food dependency, even the central government has not been quick to react and stop import of all such nefarious and harmful technologies which would destroy the livelihood security of Indian farmers.

The forum has asked the Punjab and Haryana governments to quickly study the negative impact of the new technologies on the very survival of its farming communities. Since much of the implications would be felt first in the progressive tracts of northwest India, the two governments had a "moral responsibility" to safeguard the economic interests of its farmers and at the same time ensure that no harm accrued to the region's food security.