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Bayer's take over of Indian Government's Agricultural Institutions

​ICAR is an autonomous body public body under Ministry of Agriculture. It is the largest network of agriculture research and educational institutions in the world. The Council is the apex body for coordinating, guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture, fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. With 113 ICAR institutes and 74 agricultural universities spread across the country this is one of the largest national agricultural systems in the world. Every year, around crores of Public taxed money is being allocated to ICAR by Union Government of India for its functioning.


In June 2024, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) launched for commercial cultivation two herbicide-tolerant (HT) rice varieties that are tolerant to herbicide Imazethapyr.




ICAR says these new rice varieties are tolerant to the application of Imazethapyr herbicide to eradicate weeds in the Directly Seeded Rice system.


There are many system for planting rice like, transplantation after 20 days, SRI(System for Rice Intensification), Direct seeded system etc.. Direct seeded system is marked as failure due to its ''low productivity" by Agriculture University itself.


While ICAR's own research paper published in "The Pharma Innovation" states that handing weeding is better solution to control weed in the rice fields compared to application of herbicide Imazenthapyr. Hand weeding also provides rural employment which the government is trying to provide via MGNREGA or 100 days work gurantee scheme across the country. This goes against Union government's policy.


The herbicide imazethpyr is banned in many countries because it kills bees and other insects that are helpful for agriculture. If bees becomes extinct human beings will also become extict due to food starvation as Bees are an important part in pollination to produce food. By disrupting, the nature's food chain, herbicides possess grave danger to food security of our country. Some scientist have termed the usage of this herbicide as unscientific as it destroys biodiversity in any applied area. Many countries have banned this herbicide due to its threat to ecology.


Increased usage of herbicide will result in development of herbicide tolerant weeds. For example, glyphosate is a commonly herbicide that are used worldwide to control weeds. Glyphosate kills any plant it comes in contact with. It is a know carcinogen and is banned in many countries. Despite this, many countries allow its usage in agriculture. Due to its continuous usage, weeds have developed resistance to glyophosate based Herbicide. Today, there are more than 35 known species of glyphosate tolerant weeds that can't be killed by this herbicide. If Herbicide resistant weeds develop in our country, it will be death kneel to our farmers who are already struggling in a economic crisis.  This will make their crisis more acute.


For a proven low productive method, no real benefits to farmers, no employment creation, unscientific backing, with high risk of environmental contamination, Why is ICAR so desperate to release Herbicide tolerant Rice varieties in India?


In June 2018, Bayer AG had announced completion of the 63 billion dollar mega-deal to acquire US-based biotech major Monsanto to create the world's biggest Agro-chemical and seed Corporation. Now, Bayer is the largest Agri-business corporation in the planet that sells varieties of pesticides, herbicide and Genetically modified seeds (GM seeds).


Bayer is accused of selling herbicide throughout the world and making huge profits by destroying the biodiversity of the Planet. The most widely used herbicide in the planet is Bayer's Glyphosate based Herbicide(GBH).  Glyphosate based herbicide is a chemical that kills all plants on its way. Bayer earns huge fortune out this herbicide. This Glyphosate exposure known to create many types of cancers. Exposure to GBHs is reportedly associated with several types of cancer, among which the most-well studied in humans is non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) which is a type of blood cancer which may lead to death. There are more than 13 known blood cancers that can be caused by Bayer's Glyphosate based herbicide


In USA, lakhs of people have filed lawsuit against Bayer's Round up herbicides as they claim they have got wide range of cancers due to Bayer's Roundup herbicide. After proven GBH are carcinogenic, Bayer paid 10 billion dollar settlement to cancer patients in USA alone. People accuse that Bayer knows its GBH can cause cancer but it intentionally hidden it leading to death of many innocent people. The settlement paid by Bayer to its victims is equal to 6 lakh crore Indian rupees. This is the highest amount settled by any corporation in human history for its violence against human lives. The cancer survivors argue that despite scientifically proven to create cancer, Bayer has manipulated the Government's Regulating agencies regarding its false safety.


"Its interesting to note that Bayer is the same pharma company that sells drugs to treat cancer. Now, it produces same chemicals that causes the disease."


An animal studies released in 2020, indicate that glyphosate exposures impact reproductive organs and could threaten fertility, adding fresh evidence that the weed killing agent might be an endocrine disruptor. Endocrine disrupting chemicals may mimic or interfere with the body’s hormones and are linked with developmental and reproductive problems as well as brain and immune system dysfunction.


The pesticide and herbicide that Bayer produces, kills bacteria and other good microbes in our gut. This leads to Autism spectral disorder(ASD), Attention deficit Hyper activity disorder (ADHD) and other neurological damages.


The corporation has also been accused of forging scientific paper on the safety studies on its products in USA. Some of its laboratories have been sealed by US Authorities for plagiarizing scientific papers to its favours.  Bayer is also accused of bribing political parties in Australia to sell their cancer causing pesticides, herbicides & Genetically modified crops to Australian people to bypassing the regulation of Australian Government. The corporation itself acknowledged it has given out money to public officials and Political parties in Australia. This is a clear conflict of interest. The Governments which functions as a regulating agency to see if Bayer's products are safe should function independently to maintain its scientific neutrality.


Recently, ICAR has recently signed an Memorandam of Understanding with Bayer to develop Climate-resilent solutions to Indian farmers. ICAR is a regulator expert member to many government agencies that regulate the use of herbicide, pesticides and Genetically modified crops that Bayer is selling. Bayer’s vision for Indian agriculture includes prioritising and fast-tracking approvals for its new products, introducing genetically modified (GM) food crops, promoting a model of industrial agriculture dependent on corporate products, including its toxic herbicide, and advocating heavily on its proprietary technologies and software. ICAR recent move to release Herbicide tolerant rice varieites will be benefical to Bayer herbicide market. Bayer wants to release many of its cancer causing genetically modified crops to Indian market like Gm Mustard, Gm sunflowers etc.. Now, it got its fangs within ICAR, which is an important regulator in India.  After the introduction of company's Bt- Cotton in India, cotton farmers suicide had increased many folds. Many studies have clearly pointed out that Genetically modified foods have been know to cause cancer. Many European countries have outright ban of Genetically modified foods.


Bayer is the leading corporation in global seed market with 17 percent share. The company has been accused of monopolizing seed business by enforcing genetically modified food crops on local people thereby destroying the local biodiversity of indigenous seeds which locals have been using for centuries. Bayer's illegal fields trails of their genetically modified crops have led to genetic contamination of planet's seed biodiversity. Its parent company has been accused of seed piracy of India's traditional paddy seeds from India's prestigious Indira Gandhi Agriculture University. How can a Company like Bayer help the farmer of country like India, where the diversity of seed, is so large. Also, Bayer executives have also publicly called India's agriculture as "backwards". But reality shows us a different picture. Take example of indigenous paddy seeds of India. India farmers had breeded more 2 lakh varieties of indigenous paddy seeds across India's village for centuries. This is an example of India's diverse traditional knowledge on Agriculture. These indigenous seeds were cultivated till 1950s by farmers. But, Now, only 2% of these seeds remain with farmers. Remaining all indigenous paddy varieties of extinct due to Bayer's push to monopolyis India's seed market. The corporation like Bayer is a threat to diversity of seeds available in India.


Historically, Bayer and its parent company has been accused of war crimes in Nazi Germany. The company was back then was producing chemicals for war and experimented their drugs on people in concentration camps. This led to death of tons of people. Many of the companies top leader have been convicted and sent to jail for war crimes of World war 2. Those criminals were also added back to the company after their jail sentence was over by the company to continue its poison cartel.


ICAR, signing a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Bayer, a corporations which has track record of paying billions as cancer settlement, bribing regulatory authorities, ghost writing scientific paper to their needs, monopolising agri-seed business, accussed of war crimes puts the future of Indian farmers and food security of people of India at limbo.


ICAR has also recently signed many aggrements with corporate companies like Amazon, Syngenda, etc.. Almost all corporation have a evil history like Bayer that are no less than its counterpart crime.


Now, ICAR has been added to list of Government agencies which functions against the people but are funded by people. Its time we need to rethink our believes in Government & taxes.


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Some of the cancer caused due to Bayer's herbicide include;

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, Burkitt’s Lymphoma, Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma, Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma, Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, Mantle Cell Lymphoma,Marginal Zone Lymphoma, Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma, Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Hairy Cell Leukemia.


References,

Study on Autism,

Study on Reproductive health,

 
 
 

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