KRRS opposes signing of FTA with the U.S., fear it will cripple small farmers

The Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (KRRS) and Green Brigade have expressed strong concern over the proposed India-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and has cautioned that it will have a debilitating impact on small farmers and dairy sector.

Addressing media persons here on Thursday, senior leaders of KRRS and Green Brigade said that signing of FTA will devastate Indian agriculture and wipe out rural employment apart from pushing millions of small farmers out of agriculture and dairy farming.

In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a memorandum to the PMO through the Deputy Commissioner, the KRRS and Green Brigade said the FRA is tailored to benefit U.S. agribusiness giants at the cost of Indian farmers, and the U.S. would use India as a dumping yard for its agricultural produce.

The signatories to the memorandum included senior leaders and patrons of the farmers’ movement in the State, including Chukki Nanjundawamy, daughter of M.D. Nanjundaswamy, Ramanna Kenchallera from Haveri, Prof. Ravi Varma Kumar, senior advocate, K.T. Gangadhar and others.

The signatories questioned whether corporate farmers in the U.S. were more important than the Indian farmers, and warned that the duty-free import of U.S. maize would crush India’s largest maize-producing states like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

“India currently produces 422.81 lakh tonnes of maize, while the U.S. alone grows 31% of global corn,” said the KRRS. It pointed out that even before the signing of the FTA, the maize prices had plunged from ₹2,200 per quintal last year to ₹1,400 this year and faulted the government for not opening procurement centres.

 “If this is the condition even before the agreement, imagine the scenario when shiploads of duty-free corn are imported from the U.S.,” said the KRRS and Green Brigade.

Pointing out that the dairy sector in India supported more than 8 crore families, the FTA would jeopardise its future. Karnataka alone employs over 60,000 workers through KMF and its unions, according to the KMF, which warned that importing of U.S. dairy products would wipeout millions of women and small farmers who dominate the dairy sector in India.

Urging the government not to succumb to the U.S. pressure to sign the 1961 convention of the Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, the KRRS and the Green Brigade said that it would criminalise Indian farmers’ age-old rights to save, reuse, and exchange seeds and open the flood gates for genetically modified crops.

The copies of the letter and the memorandum were sent to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Agriculture Minister Shivaraj Singh Chouhan and others.