Unregulated export of medicinal plants
By Abraham Lama
Peru’s lack of a clear legal framework for exporting native medicinal plants deprives local indigenous communities of their ancestral rights and hampers development of the nation’s pharmaceutical industry.

Plastics in modern farming
Sandeep Chopra and Kulbir Singh
With the technological advancement in agriculture, the plastic has become an indispensable part of it. It is now, not considered a ‘luxury’ but a ‘necessity’ even more so for the poor, developing and resource countries. Its importance can be realised only if practical, country and locate specific, cost-effective and user-oriented systems are offered for application.

Punseed in the red
by Bhagwan Dass
PUNJAB State Seeds Corporation (Punseed), an important state undertaking, is in doldrums. It can close shop any time. Its financial position has been going from bad to worse for the last several years. It owes Rs 60 crore to a single bank. Negotiations for one-time settlement are in progress. Its liabilities outstrip the assets.

Insecticide Act needs simplification
By P. K. Vasudeva

CHEMICAL pesticides, insecticides and weedicides have adverse effects on the environment as well as on human beings, when not properly used. It is therefore essential that proper use of pesticides is made so that the Indian products become more acceptable in the world market. Some of the old methods of destroying insects that are still prevalent in rural India may be beneficial, where the land holdings are small.

Speaking at the 36th annual session of the Pesticides Association of India (PAI), the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mr Suresh Prabhu, said: “The Department is also examining ways in which it can play a pro-active role in promoting the industry, particularly the export sector. It plans to work further on debureaucratisation and simplification of procedures in an effort to bring the regulatory framework existing in India in line with the international norms.’’ There is, therefore, urgent need to simplify the Insecticides Act. “For this, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers is in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture, for bringing about simplification of the Insecticides Act”, he said.

Mr Prabhu said increasing awareness about the correct use of pesticides amongst the farmers required enormous extension effort. The farmers had to be made aware of the correct method of application of various methods. It was essential that application of pesticides is well-directed and focused to ensure minimum harm to the person applying it and to the environment.

The stipulation under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are relevant to the pesticides industry. An increasing awareness about environment and the need for cleaner technologies and bio-degradable products have thrown up new challenges before the pesticides industry and has highlighted the need to carry out research on new environmental molecules.

“One aspect of the chemical pesticides, which is highlighted again and again, is its adverse impact on environment and human health”, said Mr. Prabhu. Industry therefore, should make concerted effort to adhere to the norms laid down in ISO 14000, which is meant for the certification of protection of the environment. This will not only ensure that there is no harm done to the environment but will also make sure that Indian products are accepted in the global market. There is also a need to supplement the use of bio-pesticides along with chemical pesticides. The pesticides industry also needs to pay attention to packaging, because the latest techniques and practices will increase the acceptability of Indian products and fetch the right price. “Since most countries now require the material safety data sheets to accompany chemicals, the industry shall have to develop expertise on this aspect too”, said the Minister.

The TRIPS agreement provides for a general transition period of five years to developing countries for implementation of all provisions of the agreement. It also provides for an additional transition period of five years to those developing countries, like India, which do not at present provide for product patents in any field of technology, to extend product patent to those fields of technology. However, in respect of pharmaceutical and insecticides alone, the TRIPS agreement requires that applications for patents should be accepted as from the date of agreement itself. If those products are granted patents and marketing approval in any other country, and the patent owner desires to introduce those products in the Indian market, he gets exclusive marketing rights as per the 1999 amendment to the Indian Patents Act, 1970, for five years or till the pending application in India is approved or rejected. This is known as the Swiss version of pipeline protection, which applies to the new products that will come into the market, based on patent applications filed under the TRIPS agreement. This provision of pipeline protection virtually erodes the transition period in case of pharmaceutical and insecticides.

The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals is implementing a project on neem based pesticides, which envisages the identification, development and field trials of this group of pesticides with the assistance of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

The Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation (VMSRF) has filed a patent for discovery of pesticide from soluble neem in both India and abroad, as it is working on the application of soluneem for other crops such as paddy, cabbage, and roses.

Soluneem is an organic pesticide and is different from other neem-based formulations in that it is water-soluble. All other solvents used are methanol, xylene, turpentine, isopropyl alcohol, polyethylene, and so on. Soluneem lends itself to unique method of application being water-soluble. It is injected into trees and becomes a systemic pesticide. It has been successfully tested in controlling two major pests in coconut- the black headed caterpillar and the eriophyd mite. The mite is a more recent occurrence and over the past three years, it has spread widely in Kerala and in some parts of Karnataka. Around 2.5 million trees in Kerala and 1.6 million trees in Karnataka have been affected. The pesticide does not kill the pests, but it hampers the growth and reproduction and arrests its spreading.

Once the Patents Act 1970, which has been introduced in Parliament for amendment as per the TRIPS Agreement, we can expect more of Eco-friendly bio-products getting patent in India. Therefore, the 30-member Select Committee of Parliament, which is considering the amendments to the Act, needs to move fast without getting bogged down in bureaucratic hurdles.

Unregulated export of medicinal plants
By Abraham Lama

Peru’s lack of a clear legal framework for exporting native medicinal plants deprives local indigenous communities of their ancestral rights and hampers development of the nation’s pharmaceutical industry.

A recently passed law on the issue prohibits the export in bulk of the native pharmacopoeia’s most important species, but unscrupulous vendors flout regulations by selling plants overseas with minimal or non-existent added-value.

Meanwhile, transnational pharmaceutical companies send researchers to the developing countries with the greatest bio-genetic diversity — in the Americas, Africa and Asia — to seek information on traditional curative plants, unknown to the industry in industrialised countries.

In some areas of the south where highly developed indigenous cultures have existed or still exist, such as Peru, ancestral wisdom includes knowledge of the healing properties of plant species - something the transnationals are anxious to exploit on a large scale.

These laboratories send doctors, sociologists and other experts to obtain information on native plants to determine whether they are candidates for mass production.

The foreign researchers trace the native communities’ oral traditions, primarily through their ‘shamans’, who are the living repositories of indigenous ancestral wisdom.

Until 1999, North American, European and Japanese labs could freely export Peruvian plant roots, stalks, fruits or leaves, unprocessed and in massive quantities.

But in July 1999, the Peruvian Parliament drafted a law that bans the non-added value export of some of the botanical species with known healing properties, which had become the target of massive extraction by foreign laboratories.

The law covers the two best-known medicinal plants in Peru’s indigenous pharmacopoeia: cat’s claw and ‘maca’,and legislators are considering expanding the norm to cover ‘yacon’ and ‘para-para’ as well. Cat’s claw is an Amazonian plant whose bark contains substances that boost the human immunological system. ‘Maca’ is a small plant that grows in the highest regions of the Peruvian Andes. Its bulb has great nutritional value and energising properties, recognised by the National Aeronautics and Space agency (NASA) in the United States, which has included it in the diet of its astronauts.

The ‘yacon’, a traditional sweetener for some native communities, also has medicinal properties, according to David Campos, of the National Agrarian University’s Institute of Agro-Industrial Development. ‘Consuming yacon aids the production of bitidobacteria, which inhibit the actions of some carcinogenic compounds. Yacon does not cure colon cancer, but it does prevent it,’ affirmed campos. “It also prevents fat built-up, and with it, the accumulation of cholesterol, the principal cause of coronary diseases,” he concluded.

‘Para-para’, from the Peruvian Amazon jungle, has aphrodisiac properties. “It awakens the sexual appetite, stimulating the creation of spermatizoids in males and invigorating the ovaries in females,” according to Dr Manuel Fernandez, President of the traditional Medicine Research Centre in Peru.

Cat’s claw is a clear example of the consequences of unregulated exploitation, a process that does not compensate the indigenous communities that discovered its healing properties, or provide economic benefits to the country of origin. Cat’s claw is used effectively in treating several types of cancer, and even AIDS. The plant has been exported in enormous quantities. Two European pharmaceutical labs patented the plant in their respective countries and obtained intellectual property rights.

In 1993, 200 kg of unprocessed cat’s claw bark were exported to the United States. The Volume jumped to 20,000 kg in 1994, and reached more than 800,000 kg in 1999. Several Peruvian labs, one of them belonging to the Catholic University of Lima, had begun exporting processed cat’s claw in pill form, but went bankrupt in 1990 because US companies began manufacturing the same thing and pushed them out of the market.

The lack of protections for the Peruvian pharmaceutical sector is not the only problem. Cat’s claw is being over-exploited, reported the First Regional Conference on Traditional medicine, held in October 1999 in Yarinacocha, located in Peru’s central jungle.

Percy Hernandez, head of the Medicinal Plant Consortium, charges that cat’s claw faces extinction due to unregulated and depredatory extraction practices. “ We used to be able to obtain cat’s claw in Huanuco, but it disappeared. So we started buying it in Tingo mara, then in Auayta and Pucallpa, but it is running out there, too, and now we are looking for it in Rioja and contaman, 400 km from Huonuco,” said Hernandez.

“The plantations are becoming extinct. The plans for planting two million seedlings of cat’s claw have not worked. It was an investment project of $25 million that the National Reforestation Institute was supposed to carry out,” he commented.

Vendor Ivon Estevez, one of the presenters at that Yarinacocha meeting, pointed out that cat’s claw ‘is being sold at a loss’, because in the jungle a kg of it brings in two cents on the dollar, while in Lima the kg sells for 28 cents. In Europe, a bottle of 100 capsules of 300 mg each is sold for $18. It is true that it has added value, but the export price should be between $3 and $5 per kg, maintained Estevez.

— Third World Network Features/IPS

Plastics in modern farming
Sandeep Chopra and Kulbir Singh

With the technological advancement in agriculture, the plastic has become an indispensable part of it. It is now, not considered a ‘luxury’ but a ‘necessity’ even more so for the poor, developing and resource countries. Its importance can be realised only if practical, country and locate specific, cost-effective and user-oriented systems are offered for application.

Application in agriculture: The agricultural applications of plastics includes the water course lining, irrigation and drainage, mulching, green houses, frost protection, storage and packaging, land reclamation etc.

Drip irrigation: The conventional mode of irrigation such as furrow irrigation, border irrigation etc. results in less water use efficiency. This gives rise to over-irrigation and under-irrigation of water-logging problems etc. The use of drip or trickle irrigation system has solved the problem faced by the conventional mode of irrigation. Drip irrigation consists of plastic pipes, inline filters, fertiliser injectors and emitters which apply water near to the root zone resulting in better water use efficiency. In general, drip irrigation has got various advantages over the conventional methods like labour saving, poor quality water use, increase yield and plant vigour, non interfering with cultural operations and also reducing weed population.

Mulching: It refers to covering the soil surface with a suitable material like straw and stubble, ash and plastic films which prevents the water loss through evaporation from the soil surface. Biological materials like straw and stubble are replaced by LDPE films as they harbour the insects and pests. The various advantages of plastic mulches includes, increasing the soil temperature and moisture, improving the soil structure, controlling weeds and enhancing the level of carbon dioxide.

Flower pots: Plastic flower pots can be made from polystyrene, polyethylene, PVC or other materials. Such pots are light weight, unbreakable and easy to stack. Besides they also lower evaporation and thus enhance the soil temperature.

Packaging: Plastic woven sacks as well as knitted bags can be used in storage and transportation of agricultural and horticultural produce. In perishable fruits and vegetables the shrivelling is markedly reduced by storing in LDPE film-lined bags.

Sprayers: Various parts of portable sprayers can have plastic parts. The use of plastic parts results in saving in weight, replacement of scarce material as well as corrosion free operations.

Sleeves for mango tree: Mealy bug, an important pest of mango, can be effectively controlled by wrapping LDPE sleeves on the main trunk. It is too slippery for the mango mealy bug to climb so the tree is protected from its attack.

Green houses: Green houses are framed structures covered with transparent or transluscent material, large enough to grow crops under controlled atmospheric conditions to get maximum growth and production. Green houses can be used for raising the plant material cultured under the controlled laboratory conditions.

Protection: Plastic has got enough scope for raising the crops under difficult situations. More specifically used to protect the nurseries of tomato, chillies and cauliflower from frost, by covering it with polythene sheets. The sheets are hardy enough to face strong winds and severe frost. Similarly the early crop of muskmelon can be raised in small polythene bags of size 15x10 cms, to escape the attack of red pumpkin beetle.

Considering the importance of plastics in modern agriculture the plasticulture needs to be promoted on a commercial scale.

The writers are research scholars in the Department of Vegetable Crops, PAU, Ludhiana.

Punseed in the red
by Bhagwan Dass

PUNJAB State Seeds Corporation (Punseed), an important state undertaking, is in doldrums. It can close shop any time.

Its financial position has been going from bad to worse for the last several years. It owes Rs 60 crore to a single bank. Negotiations for one-time settlement are in progress. Its liabilities outstrip the assets.

The committee formed sometime back by the Punjab government to study the working and financial condition of public state undertakings, including the apex co-operatives, had recommended the merger of Punseed and the PLDRC (Punjab Land Development and Reclamation Corporation).

The Punseed Managing Director, Dr SS Bains, was shifted on Monday to assist the Financial Commissioner (Development) Mr YS Ratra, as his Adviser. He has proceeded on long leave.

Punseed’s Patiala Region Senior Manager, Dr Balbir Singh, retired voluntarily on Monday. Three senior Assistants — Sudarshan Shukla, Vikram Rawat and NL Gupta — along with Senior Production Officer Nasib Chand and Accounts Superintendent RK Saxena followed suit.

Last month 28 employees of the corporation had taken voluntary retirement. Thirteen clerks and salesmen were retrenched.

Seed growers are irked. They have been told that they will be paid half the support price for the seed taken by Punseed as against 80 per cent paid in the earlier years. And that will also be possible if the state government comes to the rescue of the corporation by granting some funds to run it. In the event of her not doing so the growers have to part with the seeds and wait for the proceeds until November when the seed will be sold and the price paid to them.

There are hundreds of growers who have produced wheat seed for Punseed. It has committed to buy 1.30 lakh quintals valuing approximately Rs 10 crore.

The seed growers are eligible for a premium of Rs 125 per quintal over above the support price of Rs 575 as per agreement with the corporation. They are now considering approaching the Civil Court for compensation.

Meanwhile farm leaders have expressed serious apprehensions about the availability of seed wheat for the 2000-2001 rabi season. It appears the growers will be left at the mercy of private dealers who, according to them, resort to all sorts of unscrupulous practices by selling seeds not true to type.

The Punjab government has asked the Additional Secretary (Agriculture), Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, a bureaucrat to hold the additional charge of Punseed as Managing Director.