Bt cotton in Andhra Pradesh: a three-year assessment - IndiaGMInfo

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Seeds of Violence
Moglicherla Village in Moglicherla Mandal of Warangal
was suddenly in the news in early 2005. Angered by the
total failure of Bollgard cotton in hundreds of acres in
their village, the farmers from Moglicherla held the Mahyco
Monsanto representative hostage in their village. He had
to be rescued by the police and escorted out of the village.
The next day the villagers went to Warangal City and in a
spontaneous, violent protest, destroyed seed depots and
set some on fire. They had lost all hopes in the seeds,
seed dealers and the government apparatus. They called
upon the insurgent Peoples War Group to come and rescue them from a situation where the
government in league with the multinational seed corporations was subverting the evidence regarding
the crop failure and was turning a blind eye to the ruination of the Bt farmers in their village.
The media, as usual, said it was a case of spurious seeds while in actuality, the farmers of Moglicherla
had bought authentic cartons of seeds from authorised dealers of Mahyco-Monsanto and were
producing proper receipts for their purchase. Once again, the corporate power had succeeded in
overturning a human misery.
Listen to the farmers of Moglicherla. How a genuine grievance, uncared for, turns into violence.
Atchula Tirupati says...
This is pachi mosam [Abject injustice]. Done in broad daylight. Thieves come in the night,
but these corporate robbers have robbed us in daylight. Right in front of our eyes, they
have snatched away Rs.1600 from our pockets. 450 gms. 1600 rupees.
In some of our houses, our wives are not giving us food. Because all this pettanam
[extravagance] is by men. Men are profligate [in bringing Bt] and women work 24
hours. Ultimately there is no boll in the field, no cotton in hand. What to do?
If we had grown groundnut, turmeric or any other cotton, we would have earned more
than 50,000 rupees. Brahma, Sigma, Tulsi, whatever cotton, we would have got 30 quintals
[3000 kgs] yield. With this Bt there was no question of any yield. The bolls emerged just so
small[shows his fingers] and dried up with the plant. The very first bolls have given us 4-
5 handbags of cotton. That is all.we got.
One or two bolls only. They [Mahyco-Monsanto] people checked all these [swings his
hands around to show a vast area] fields. Then they [Mahyco-Monsanto representtive]
came from Hyderabad in a Sumo [a local model of jeep] and inspected these fields. We
asked them “what is the matter sir” and made him stay in the village until 8-9 in the night.
“Give us in writing that you will come back on a certain day” we said and contributed ten
rupees each and bought a stamp paper. He said “I am not allowed to sign”. We asked him,
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