FIND OUT NOW: What do GMOs have to do with farmer suicides?

'He went out to his field, lay down in the cotton and swallowed insecticide.'

What should you do when farmers are given illegal genetically modified (GM) seeds to sow? Apparently the answer is to purchase the crops at a drastically reduced price to teach the biotech company a lesson while simultaneously forcing farmers into debt-related suicide.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Biotech giant Monsanto provided illegal GM cotton seeds to farmers across India. 

In response to the illegal crops, the Indian Agricultural Minister recently stated all royalties to Monsanto will be capped at 49 rupees (73 American cents) for each 450-pack, which is a 70 percent reduction from the expected fee.

Bloomberg Business reported earlier last week that the maximum sale price for the cotton falls at 800 rupees ($12.04).

In response to the royalty cap, Monsanto replied it would "reevaluate every aspect" of its position, adding its contracts with seed companies have been compromised, as have its operations.

The GM cotton seeds, known as Bt seeds, were illegally sold to thousands of farmers, who did not know the product was illegal, nor did they know that Bt cotton was modified to secrete its own insecticide.

In a statement released in early March, Radha Mohan Singh, India's Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, said Bt cotton seeds were devalued "to safeguard the interest of the farming community."

Despite claims that the royalty cap was designed to help farmers, the price of cotton has continually fallen, leading several farmers to debt-related suicides.

Murali Dhidkar, an Indian cotton farmer, told CNN: "Our land mostly supports only two crops: cotton and soybean. But for the past few years, soybean yield has consistently been decreasing. So we mostly depend on cotton.

"I'm getting around 50 dollars per quintal. Just a year ago it was 100 dollars. I've never seen such a low price. The costs of pesticides, fertilizers and seeds are increasing but the cotton price is falling down. Government officials do not come to the village and listen to our plights. Just a few days ago, my neighbor burnt himself alive.

"It's an epidemic. How many more farmers need to commit suicide before the government steps in to find a solution to this problem?"

In 2013, 11,772 farmers committed suicide across India, with the number rising every year since.
Kanhaiya, the wife of a farmer who committed suicide, shared: "I have to pay the loan back both to [the] bank and private  money lenders. I have no clue how I will pay the debt. Once the baby is born, I will look for work. I will have to do labor jobs all my life to pay the loan. 

"I did receive compensation from the local state government after my husband's death. But it is very minimal. That does nothing to solve the grave problem I am in."

Another widow told Natural Society, "We are ruined now. We bought 100 grams of BT Cotton. Our crop failed twice. My husband had become depressed. He went out to his field, lay down in the cotton and swallowed insecticide."

Sixty percent of India's population depends of agriculture. Unfortunately, the decision to purchase the GM Bt cotton at no more than 800 rupees has not only implied a severe blow to Monsanto, it has also led to harsher lives of the widows and families of farmers who saw no alternative but death.

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