Half a million sign representation to protest Terminator seed technology

Khaleej Times
Mar. 19, 2006

HYDERABAD — About half a million farmers from Southern states of India have urged the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to protect country's agro biodiversity against the new and serious threat from the Terminator seeds technology.

The representation by the South Against Genetic Engineering, a coalition of 50 South Indian networks of farmers, civil society groups, consumer movements, scientists and academicians has been made at a time when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is in session in Brazil.

The session is to take a decision on the technology. Significantly India is the leader of the Group of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMCs) at this session. P.V. Sateesh, the coordinator of SAGE told newsmen in Hyderabad on Thursday that the attempts by the biotech industry to make entry into the developing countries like India pose a grave threat to the farming communities dependent on agrobiodiversity.

The representation has been signed by over half a million farmers and concerned citizens across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. "Terminator, the popular terminology used to describe Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURTS) is the ultimate in killing the freedom of seed saving practices of farmers in India which is in vogue since millennia," he said.

Stressing that seed and agriculture has always represented life in India, Sateesh said that Terminator completely contradicts this image and brings death through seeds.
"Seed is the symbol of reproduction for us. But Terminator seeds offer sterility. This is a diabolical science which subverts the basic reproductive function of nature," he said.