The United States Drug Authority (USDA) and Delta & Pine Land Co (D&PL), an American cotton seed company, on March 3, 1998, received a US patent on a technique that genetically alters seed so that the crop from the altered variety cannot be used as seed. This genetic alteration will effectively put an end to farmers saving part of the harvested crop for subsequent use as seed, reports Canadian-based non-government organisation Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) Communique.The patent is applicable to seeds of all crops including transgenic seeds.The technique, still under product development stage, is now being tested on cotton and tobacco and the developers hope to bring the product into the market after the year 2000. It is reported that D&PL and USDA have applied for the patent in at least 78 countries.Because of its profound implications on agriculture, threat to farmers and global food security, RAFI has dubbed the new technology as "Terminator Technology". RAFI and other NGOs arecalling for a global ban on the use of Terminator Technology. They want the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and FAO to publicly denounce the technology.Both the USDA and D&PL have jointly funded and carried out the research work leading to the patented technology. Incidentally, D&PL is the largest cotton seed company in the world and of the US cottonseed market. The patent will be exclusively licensed through the D&PL. USDA sources maintain that their main interest is to protect American technology, US agriculture and to make US competitive in the face of foreign competition. Their goal is to increase value of proprietary seeds owned by US seed companies and to open up new markets in the Second and Third World countries. But RAFI says that profits of USDA and seed industry will come at an enormous cost to farmers and food security.In the case of crops like wheat, rice, soyabean etc, a large majority of the farmers in developing countries and up to 20 per cent to 30 per centof the farmers even in developed countries rely on their own farm-saved seeds and purchase seeds from the commercial market once every five years or so. Farmers select the best seeds every year from the crop grown in their own fields which involves exploitation of bio-diversity and local adaptation of the crop. The Terminator Technology could put an end to all of this and increase crop uniformity and vulnerability. Half the world's farmers are poor and can't afford to buy seed every growing season, yet poor farmers grow 15 per cent to 20 per cent of the world's food and they directly feed at least 1.4 billion people - 100 million in Latin America, 300 million Africa and 1 billion in Asia. These farmers depend upon saved seed for use on their (often marginal) lands.RAFI report also points out that the Terminator Technology could pose a bio-safety hazard although the seed industry is expected to defend the technology. In RAFI's view, bio-safety at the expense of food security is no solution. Both must beconsidered, but human safety through food security must be our prime concern.
