GM Seeds Ruin Sambandha with the two Mothers (Gomata and Bhudevi)
Bachannapeta, the Mandal headquarter, was established on 25th May 1985. The mandal is very dry with ground level water at more than 200 ft deep. Cultivation is mainly rainfed. A seed company opened its trial fields in this area with its GMO Bt Cotton. This has not only resulted in easy handing over of farmer’s life line (in the form of seeds) to the company but also destroyed the complete face of farming. Earlier there was a lot of crop rotation (multi-cropping) and millets, but now it has been taken over by mono-cropping of cash crop, that too of GMO. Those seeds were available at subsidized rates and were patronised by the organizations at every level. All their rich crops were replaced by Bt cotton. This belt where water has already been sparse, the area was falling in an arid zone with very low rainfall. This had made the situation very grim and more complicated than ever. The Bt cotton crop had destroyed the soil making it barren, decreased crop variety, zipped biodiversity, replaced food production with cash crops of cotton, thus cutting off the food supply, and introduced dependence on seed companies for seeds unlike the earlier situation of saving from the output itself. Increased vulnerability of monoculture has created a context for debt, suicides and agrarian distress. No wonder, there have been innumerable cases of suicides. This belt has witnessed the highest number of farmer suicides in the country.The people are generally given to wine and meat consumption besides other debilitating habits.
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