Monsanto’s 475-ton seed donation challenged by Haitian peasants
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Catholic
News Service
WASHINGTON - Advocates for Haitian peasants said a U.S.-based company’s donation of
up to 475 tons of hybrid vegetable seeds to aid Haitian farmers will
harm the island-nation’s agriculture.
The advocates contend the donation is being made in an effort to shift
farmer dependence from local seed to more expensive hybrid varieties
shipped from overseas.
Haitian farmers and small growers traditionally save seed from season to
season or buy the seed they desire from traditional seed markets.
However, an official from the St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. told Catholic
News Service that the seed is simply a donation to the Haitian
government. The first two shipments - 135 tons - of hybrid varieties of
corn, cabbage, carrot, eggplant, melon, onion, spinach, tomato and
watermelon arrived in Haiti during the first two weeks of May.
Bazelais Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay, the primary
group opposed to the donation, told CNS June 1 from his office in
Brooklyn, N.Y., that farmers usually are skeptical of unknown seed
varieties.
“From my experience, the peasant (farmer) is very careful in using the
seeds, particularly corn,” Jean-Baptiste said. “They would not plant a
seed they did not know because they invested time to prepare the land
and the seed.”
In a widely distributed e-mail in mid-May, Jean-Baptiste’s brother,
Chavannes, executive director of the peasant group, excoriated the seed
donation as “a new earthquake.”
He said the entry of Monsanto seed into Haiti was “a very strong attack
on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds ...
and on what is left of our environment in Haiti.”
The Haitian Ministry of Agriculture welcomed the gift in April, but only
after Monsanto assured officials that the seeds were not genetically
modified varieties. Ministry officials refused an earlier gift of
herbicide-treated seed.
The seed is being distributed to farmer stores for sale at significantly
reduced prices. News reports said the seed has been sent to Leogane,
Arcahaie, and Mirebalais.
Monsanto plans to send up to an additional 345 tons of hybrid corn seed
by May 2011. The company valued the seed at $4 million.
Some of the seed is being distributed by a U.S. Agency for International
Development program designed to increase farmer productivity. The
five-year-long Watershed Initiative for National Natural Environmental
Resources program, or WINNER, provides in-country expertise, technical
advice, fertilizer and other services to farmers.
The program recently distributed 60 tons of the donated seed to seed
stores.
“If hybrids are introduced with proper technical assistance, which
WINNER is providing, the farmers can get the most out of these seeds,”
said Adam Reinhart, agriculture officer for USAID’s Haiti Task Team.
In a statement June 1, the company denied it was using the donation to
open doors to the Haitian market.
“We have a small vegetable business in Haiti today, sold through a
distributor,” said Monsanto spokesman Darren Wallis. “We do not have a
commercial corn business in Haiti. Our goal is to help build a
sustainable agriculture system to benefit the people of Haiti.”
He said the hybrid seed varieties would produce higher yields of crops
than the open-pollinated varieties traditionally used by the Haitians.
Wallis also expressed concern that anyone would encourage farmers to
burn the donated seed because “the ones hurt by the action will be
Haitian farmers and the Haitian people, not those watching on the
sidelines.”
A report published March 10 by Catholic Relief Services said Haitian
farmers traditionally prefer local seed because it is adapted to local
growing conditions.
The finding came during a 10-day assessment of seed needs in Haiti’s Sud
department - southwest of Port-au-Prince - six weeks after the
magnitude 7 earthquake destroyed a significant part of the country. The
study looked at the supply and demand for the five most common food
security crops: bean, corn, sorghum, pigeon pea and peanut.
Co-authored by Dina Brick, technical adviser for food security at CRS,
the report found that the major concern among farmers after the
earthquake was their inability to pay for seed. To compensate,
cash-strapped farmers told the researchers they planned to buy
less-expensive seed and reduce the amount of seed planted.
The cash shortage among farmers is fueled by the relocation of people
who fled earthquake-ravaged regions and moved in with family or friends
in rural communities, Brick told CNS May 30.
Brick, who was in Haiti undertaking a countrywide seed assessment study
with several other nongovernment organizations, said that, during the
first study, seed suppliers and farmers told her that seed supplies were
sufficient. Growing seasons vary depending on the crop.
“There needs to be clear evidence that distributed seed is well-adapted
to Haitian soils and conditions,” she added. “Haiti has many
agro-ecological zones and many microclimates, and local varieties are
adapted to these. We need to make sure that distributed varieties are
tested in real life conditions that are consistent with Haiti’s
latitude, soils, etc.”
CRS also is concerned that seed donations from outside of Haiti may
undermine local markets while limiting the types of seed available,
Brick said.
“We need to make sure that farmers have a choice on what seed they can
access,” she said. “Seed vouchers and fairs enable farmers to choose the
crops and varieties they want and need. Seed aid doesn’t always do
that; it makes assumptions sometimes.”
Jun 2, 2010
Comment
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Comment by Citizen X74 on June 8, 2010 at 11:38am
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the arrogance of their minds thinking they can be the only ones to possess the means to make food, the most basic need on the planet!!!! judged indeed, when the awakening comes these will be some of the first people against the wall!
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