Monday, January 3, 2011

Will Monsanto play a role in poverty alleviation in developing countries like India?

Monsanto is a multinational company that was involved in seed and chemical business. It entered biotechnology later and started producing transgenic crops. These genetically modified crops are widely considered to have safety issues by NGOs like greenpeace with minimal scientific evidence. But, public institutions like FDA (Food and Drug Administration) , USDA(United States Department of Agriculture), EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) etc., support transgenic food crops like Bt corn, Bt eggplant, GM potato, GM tomato etc.,  with maximum scientific evidence possible. 
90% of the biotech crops grown world wide are are from Monsanto. Monsanto has a very bad reputation among the public after the release of the short film, "the world according to Monsanto". Monsanto had tried to improve their reputation through donating its Bt gene to public institutions in India. Now public institutions also produce Bt cotton seeds. It has also licensed its technology to a number of Indian seed companies which are its competitors. Milton Friedman, a famous economist says, " The main purpose of a company is to create profits". Why would a company like Monsanto DONATE and license its most money making technology to its competitors?!  
I believe Monsanto is using the Bt gene as bait to enter the Indian seed market. It is alleged that after the release of Bt eggplant in India about 23 transgenic crops are in the pipeline to be released. Most of them belong to Monsanto. I don't think  Monsanto will license or donate those technologies to Indian public institutions or Indian seed companies. So Monsanto is clearly on a track to monopolize the Indian seed market. 
 But, when we see Monsanto as a Indian farmer, it is a company that creates profits for affordable farmers. Poor farmers are not benefited by Monsanto directly as Monsanto's seeds are very expensive. India's cotton production had increased several folds after the adoption of Bt cotton in India. 88% of cotton planted in India is Bt cotton. This improvement in cotton production shows that, poor cotton farmers are  benefited from the technology that Monsanto donated to public institutions not from the expensive seeds or fertilizers of Monsanto that they can't afford.
Monsanto is not likely to donate it's technologies to public institutions other than the Bt gene, If Monsanto releases the other alleged 23 transgenic crops in India, I believe that Monsanto will have a monopoly in the Indian seed market .

2 comments:

  1. nice eye opener but i would like to know more on monsanto and its "good deeds" for our country

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  2. HOPE PEOPLE AGAINST Bt could get this...it would be better if public enterprises involve rather than a private one like monsanto though it has a good cause...

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