August 4, 2006

Supreme Court Admits Navdanya’s PIL Against Wheat Import

Today, the Indian Supreme Court admitted Navdanya’s  petition challenging the Government’s decision to import wheat. The Indian Government, under US pressure after the singing of US – India Knowledge Initiative decided to allow wheat imports even though imports were not necessary and consignments fail to meet health and phyto-sanitary norms.

The Government has significantly relaxed quality specifications for import of wheat. This comes out clearly through a comparison of the standards laid down in the State Trading Corporation of India’s (STC) latest tender of May 8 with those in its previous tender floated on February 20.

The wheat that arrived from Australia in April 2006 on Chennai Port was unfit for consumption as the pesticide content was 0.25 ppm (parts per million) which was 50 times over the permissible level of 0.05 ppm.

While succumbing to pressure, the State Trading Corporation’s tender ofMay 8 does not mention its earlier specification that imported wheat be “free from moulds”, and similarly, against the earlier stringent specification that the wheat “shall be completely free from Argemone mexicana, Lathyrus sativus, dwarf bunt (Tilletia contraversa) and ergot (Cleviceps purpurea)”, it stops at the first two. It permits presence of the other two fungal pathogens – dwarf bunt and ergot fungi – to the extent of 0.005 per cent and 0.01 per cent respectively. There are also a couple of other relaxations, including Bromus rigidus, an exotic weed seed, which is missing from the tender.

While the international quality parameters are being tightened the world over to ensure that invasive alien species do not use the vehicle of commodity trade to enter into a country, India is busy relaxing the quality norms thereby opening the floodgates to noxious weeds, deadly insect pests and dreaded plant diseases.

Violating the norms of the Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention, to both of which India is a signatory, no scientific sampling was done to ascertain the percentage of alien matter, dust particles and pesticides residues.

Past experiences shows that several of the minor weeds that came along with PL-480 wheat shipments into India during sixties have turned into biological nuisances, often becoming a national menance. Pathernium weed came with American wheat and now occupies 15 per cent of the country’s geographical area.

So far 35 lakh tonne of wheat import has been finalized. Recently, eight companies have submitted bids for supplying four lakh tonne of wheat to the State Trade Corporation. Cargill is the biggest bidder for maximum quantity at 3.4 lakh tonne and AWB has offered to supply about 2.2 lakh tonne. However, none has offered to supply the entire four lakh tonne.

India is the second largest producer and consumer of wheat. If India’s wheat production is undermined by imports, there will be global scarcity and increase in wheat prices. This case is critical for the defense of food sovereignty of India’s farmers and people everywhere.