The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Agriculture Tribune

It is now karela, jamun & brinjal
Biopiracy of rich Indian herbal wealth
By P.K. Vasudeva

EARLIER Basmati rice had been patented by Rice Tec Inc of USA. Now karela (bitter gourd), jamun (blackberry), gurmar, and brinjal have been patented by a MNC in the USA. The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Union Agriculture Ministry as the petitioner, Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE), charged the Centre with failure to protect the country’s biodiversity despite giving an assurance.

RFSTE counsel Sanjay Parikh said Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee had informed in 1998 about action taken by the government in protecting the biodiversity by bringing biodiversity legislation. As far as basmati rice was concerned, Sorabjee had said the government had already taken steps to challenge the grant of patent, but there has been no follow-up after that.

Biopiracy is an epidemic. Earlier, neem, haldi, pepper, harad, bahera, amla, mustard, Basmati, ginger, castor, jaramla, amaltas, isabgol, and now karela and jamun have been patented under the USIPR system.

A patent number US6,900.240 was granted recently to Cromak Research Inc based in New Jersey, on edible herbal compositions for anti-diabetic properties. It comprised mixtures of at least two Indian herbs selected from a group consisting of ‘syzygium jambolanum cumini’, popularly known as jamun, ‘momordica charantia’ (bitter gourd or karela); ‘solanum melongena’ (brinjal or egg plant’ and ‘gymaema sylvestre’ (gurmar) as anti-diabetes agents for their proposed use in reducing sugar. Patents had been granted on May 4 last in the USA on edible herbal composition comprising mixtures of herbs selected from the group consisting of jamun, gurmar, karela and brinjal useful as two hypolycemic agents. The investors include two non-resident Indians Onkar S. Tomar and Kirpanath Borah along with their American colleague Peter Glomski. The patenting of these anti-diabetic plants has again highlighted the problem of biopiracy of rich Indian herbal wealth.

A patent issued in the USA does not affect us dramatically, says the Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr R.A. Mashelkar. “It does not mean that one cannot use similar mixture in India for anti-diabetic treatment. Yes, it may affect the possibility of our exporting such a mixture to the USA”, says Mashelkar. India should be more active in filing the patents. “Since 1994 when the TRIPS came into force, the US in the last four years has granted upto 1,890 patents. Most of these have been from China. India’s contribution has been meagre,” says Mashelkar.

Jamun belongs to the guava family. It originated in India and is now naturalised throughout the Far East countries. It is a fruit tree of considerable economic value, says K.V. Peter, Director, Indian Institute of Spice Research, Kozhikode. Extracts of stems, leaves, buds and flowers possess moderate antibiotic activity against micrococcus pyogenous, aureus, according to “Wealth of India”, a CSIR publication. Experiments conducted at the Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, show that oral administration of dried alcoholic extracts of seeds to diabetic patients reduces the blood sugar level.

The government is yet to take a decision on contesting patents obtained by the US firm for kerala, jamun, brinjal and gurmur, because it is still examining and analysing the whole issue. While the fruit, leaves and roots of bitter gourd have long been used in India as a folk remedy for diabetes mellitus, the leaves of gurmar are useful in the management of maturity onset diabetes. It is an important ingredient in Ayurvedic formulation for diabetes. Their use in the treatment of diabetes is documented in the authoritative treatises such as “Wealth of India”, “Compendium of Indian Medicinal Plants” and the “Treatise on Indian Medicinal Plants”. The patent document has not mentioned the above findings under the ‘prior art’ states the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) bulletin published by Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC).

With 70 per cent of the country’s population depending on non-allopathic medicines, the potential of traditional medication is large. This increases the importance of ensuring that the traditional knowledge base of the country is protected and that the multinational companies are not allowed to patent traditional medicines says the former Controller-General, Patent, Designs and Trademarks, Mr K.V. Swaminathan.

The problem of biopiracy is a result of Western style of IPR systems, and not the absence of such IPR systems in India. Therefore the implementation of Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement which is based on the US style patent regime must immediately be stopped. The promotion of piracy is not an aberration in the US patent law. It is intrinsic to it. Article 102 of the US Patent Law, which defines ‘prior art’, does not recognise technologies and methods in use in other countries as ‘prior art’. If knowledge is new for the US, it is novel, even if it is part of an ancient tradition of other cultures of countries.

This was categorically stated in the Connecticut Patent Law who treated convention, as “bringing the supply of goods from foreign posts” that is not yet of use among us. “Prior art” and ‘prior use’ in other countries were therefore, systematically ignored in the US laws on monopolies granted on the basis of claims to invention.

Article 27.2 of TRIPS Agreement offers a way out i.e. signatories of the treaty may disallow patents in those cases where prevention of commercial exploitation is necessary in order to protect human, animal or plant life. We need to use our sovereign powers to reject legally anti-farmer, anti-bio-diversity technologies. We can always use Article 7 and 8 of TRIPS to reject patent application, which attempt to patent our indigenous knowledge either directly or indirectly or with trivial modifications.

India has yet to introduce Bio-diversity Act, and Protection of Plant Varieties Act. In order to protect our bio-wealth, it should be legislated at the earliest, but definitely before the next review of TRIPS Agreement, which is due in 2000. Because the ministerial meeting at Seattle in November/December, 1999, failed and drew a dissension.

India should highlighted at the next WTO ministerial conference that the TRIPS Agreement is modelled on the American patent system, which encourages piracy. The IPR should also be linked with the convention on the bio-diversity, which seeks to protect the bio-diversity resources of the countries.

Migrant labour earns Rs 534 crore
By V.P. Prabhakar

HOW much agriculture operations in Punjab and Haryana are dependent on migrant agriculture labour can be gauged from the fact that at the time of harvesting and sowing operations farmers in both States storm railway stations and bus stands in order to catch hold of either the “agents” or labour for their fields. The main reason for this is that with the spread of education and exposure to television the sons of the soil are not prepared to do work in the field like their fathers or grandfathers. They do not want to harden their hands. Even local labour is not available in sufficient number. Moreover they demand much higher wages than the migrant labour.

Migrant labour comes in “groups” from their native places and the so-called ‘agents’ bring them to Punjab and Haryana from their villages by giving them lots of allurements. These ‘agents’ have complete control over them. These agents are also instrumental in settling wages for them and it is alleged that they get commission from both sides.

Even after the farm operations are over, many labourers stay at various farms for routine duties like chowkidars etc. Such type of workers are treated on different footings. Some of them even bring their families also.

Although farm operations are very important for the economy of both states as these are food bowls of India, these migrant labour indulge in other works also like construction activities, in brick kilns and as rickshaw-pullers and even factory workers. Take for example the case of Chandigarh itself. The construction labour available in Chandigarh is mostly from outside states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as their wages here are much higher than available in their respective States. One of the main reasons for the growth of slums in various cities, particularly in Chandigarh, is that these labourers have constructed their huts at unauthorised places where ultimately slums have developed.

They and their spouses also work as domestic help. The high officers of both Governments keep them in their out-houses and the women normally do free work in their houses.

The Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, has done a study of migrant agricultural labour in Punjab and this study has revealed interesting facts. These facts have been mentioned in the annual report for the year 1996-97 of the university.

The study on migrant agricultural labour in Punjab brought out that 93 per cent of the migrants belonged to the States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and 5 per cent also came from Nepal. The major factors behind migration were poverty, unemployment and low wage rates in the native areas of migrants.

The total number of migrants, according to the survey of the PAU, were estimated at about 3.87 lakh in the lean period of 1995-96 and their number reaches to about 7.74 lakh persons during peak period of work-load.

The total earnings of the entire migrant agricultural labour force in Punjab were estimated at Rs 534.35 crore in 1995-96 out of which their remittances to native places amounted to Rs 354.76 crore and the remaining amount of Rs 179.59 crore was spent in Punjab itself. In this way remittances to the native places come to two-third of the earnings.

The study revealed that a vast majority of the total local labourers (about 92 per cent) did not view the influx of migrants favourably. They felt that the migrant labour had depressed their wages rates and employment opportunities. However, on the overall, the relation between the local and migrant labourers and the farmers were reported to be cordial.

If this is the situation of Punjab alone then one can easily work out the details about migrant labour in Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The authorities and the social organisations should check the outflow of resources and may not be able to accomplish the jobs here. In small towns this influx can even affect the voters’ list.

Farm reforms a distant dream
By Khushwant Ahluwalia

WITH a new millennium having set in, a lot of people question what is going to be the future of agriculture and horticulture in India. Without blinking an eyelid I say ‘Bleak’.

Agriculture reforms remain a distant dream for Indian farmers even though we have entered the much-hyped twentyfirst century. There is no scope for immediate rectification of a plagued and a beleaguered farming economy.

The demands placed before our government and other agriculture and horticulture related research and extension services are more intense and demanding but each one has failed to give farm reforms a viable direction. Rather, they have been found wanting in their vision and effort to uplift the farming sector to near optimum levels of productivity by not using various via media available internationally.

In retrospect the powers that be have played funny games with the farming community by appeasing them with tit-bit and glad-hand policies, to woo votes. Today no government can afford to relax, especially when the whole world is talking of trade liberalisation and the next round of negotiations under the WTO may spring a few surprises for us.

India’s strength lies in agriculture and the world today is aware of India’s potential as a major player in the food market. But for that we have to produce quality food which is acceptable in the international market. For that we are to create a certain levels of awareness amongst our farmers. They have to be exposed to various ways and means to produce quality food and fruit and until and unless it is done so, every farmer will keep following visionless credence. Governments will also have to pursue reforms with vigour to ensure that a farmer obtains a fair share of the benefits achieved through international trade.

To give an example of government’s lack of vision, APEDA, an agency created to facilitate horticulture export from India, tried its best to sell kinnows in the international market. Kinnow is a citrus variety having a lot of seeds. People abroad prefer the seedless varieties and rejected kinnow primarily due to too many seeds in the fruit. Somehow our thinktank was not discouraged with this backdrop and kept forcing their ideology to the farmer while showing what a momentous and foresighted effort the government was putting. Ultimately, much money and effort was lost in impelling kinnow down Europe’s throat.

What we should have done was get and grow those seedless varieties from abroad which are suitable to Indian climate and then given impetus to exports. By now we would have been in a position to send our first consignment.

In any case for successful exports we need a continuous supply chain of fruit. For that we need diversified export quality varieties of citrus, mangoes, peaches, etc which ripen at different stages of the year. No buyer will be willing to do business with us for a period of two months only or with only one variety.

Formulas need to be worked out through which the cost of production of food goes down and also of other supply chains as in surface and air transport, energy and storage. To give a small example of the problems faced by farmers who are attempting to do something extra, we decided to market our kinnows to distant markets of Bangalore, Mumbai etc. Once our kinnows were packed I requisitioned for a truck to go to Bangalore. To my utter surprise not truck was willing to take kinnows to the desired destination. Inquiry revealed that since the trucks could carry an overload of potatoes by five to seven quintals, no trucker was willing to carry kinnows.

I had to pay through my nose to organise transportation immediately. The point is that these truck drivers go scot free and it indirectly harms the marketing of horticulture produce which is perishable. In retrospect such hindrances become deciding factors for farmers whether they want to market their produce to far-off places or just dump it locally.

But somehow our priorities are wrong. We have not given impetus to infrastructure and R&D in the farming sector. What we have created we cannot boast of ! In fact whatever is there lies in poor condition marred by bureaucratic and political quarrels. Take the example of the Punjab Agriculture University. What a fantastic institution created to do research and siphon in new schools of thought in the farming sector. What role is it officiating today. It doesn’t have anything exception to offer except its printed literature.

Today the farming sector is looking for policies which offers respite from the present and not so fundamental policies of the government.

The governments of today are required to be more bold and positive in their approach and need to do away with dictates which reflect awe and dread vis-a-vis agriculture. Action plan should be devised to make farming profitable and a competitive business in which the government acts as a catalyst for innovative farming schemes and to achieve higher production levels.