August 9th 2011: “Monsanto, Quit India” events across the country

On Quit India Day this year, responding to a call put out by ASHA, thousands of Indians vowed to uphold the country’s food and seed sovereignty and resist the increasing corporate takeover of agriculture. From remote tribal hamlets in Orissa to kasbah towns across the country to the national capital, more than a hundred events were organized by civil society groups and concerned individuals to highlight the peril to India’s Food, Farmers and Freedom. Across the country, the demands to the governments were mainly four-fold: no collaborative research partnerships with companies like Monsanto in the state agriculture universities and other institutions in the NARS; no commissioned projects especially for GM crop trials, by these institutions and no GM crop trials in general; no public-private-partnerships in the name of improving productivity especially of crops like maize and rice which in effect pose serious questions on food/nutrition security as well as seed sovereignty; setting up grassroots systems of seed-self reliance, recognizing farmers’ skills and knowledge related to seed and supporting institution-building and infrastructure around such self-reliant systems, so that timely availability of appropriate, diverse, affordable seed for all farmers is possible.

You can view the photos of the events across the country by clicking on the link below: