Seed is the first link in the food chain, and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seed or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve, exchange, they have no seed sovereignty and consequently no food sovereignty.

The deepening agrarian and food crisis has its roots in changes in the seed supply system, brought on by the erosion of seed diversity and the farmer’s loss of rights to seed. These rights include the right to save, breed and exchange seed, to have access to diverse open-source seeds which are not patented, genetically modified, owned and controlled by giant corporations. There is an urgent need to reclaim the seed and biodiversity in the food chain as commons.

The last 20 years have seen the concentration of the control over seed by a very small number of giant corporations. In 1995, when the UN organised the Plant Genetic Resources Confe-rence in Leipzig, it was reported that 75 per cent of all agricultural biodiversity had disappeared because of the introduction of “modern” varieties. Since then, the erosion of seed diversity and the farmer’s right have been rapid. The introduction of the Trade Related Intellectual Pro-perty Rights Agreement (TRIPs) of WTO has accelerated the spread of genetically engineered seed which can be patented, and for which royalties can be collected.

Navdanya was brought into being in response to the introduction of patents on seed in the TRIPs under GATT about which a representative of Monsanto, a leading GM seed corporation, later said, “In drafting these agreements we were the patient diagnostician, physician all in one.” Corporations defined a problem and for them the problem was farmers saving the seed. They offered a solution, and the solution was to make it illegal for farmers to save seeds by introducing patents and intellectual property rights on seed. As a result, acreage under GM corn, soya, canola and cotton has dramatically increased across the world.

Besides destroying diversity, patented GM seeds are also undermining seed sovereignty. Across the world, new seed laws are being made which enforce compulsory registration of seed, thus making it impossible for small farmers to grow their own diversity, and forcing them into dependency on giant seed corporations. Corporations are patenting climate-resilient seeds evolved by farmers, thus robbing farmers of their right to use their own seeds and knowledge for climate adaptation.

Another threat is genetic contamination of the seed. India has lost its cottonseeds because of contamination from Bt Cotton. Canada has lost its canola seed because of contamination from Roundup Ready canola. Mexico has lost its corn because of contamination from GM corn.

After contamination, Biotech Seed Corporation sues farmers with patent infringement cases, as happened in the case of Percy Schmeiser, a farmer from Bruno in Canada. That is why more than 80 groups came together and filed a case to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers whose seeds had been contaminated.

As the farmer’s seed supply is eroded and he becomes dependent on patented GM seed, the result is debt. India, the home of cotton, has lost its cottonseed diversity and cottonseed sovereignty. Ninety-five per cent of cottonseed is now Monsanto’s Bt. Cotton, and the debt trap created by being forced to buy seed every year, with royalty payments, has pushed hundreds of thousands of farmers to suicide, of the 250,000 cases of farmers suicide, the majority are in the cotton belt.

Even as the disappearance of biodiversity and seed sovereignty creates a major crisis for agriculture and food security, corporations are pushing governments to use public money to destroy the public seed supply and replace it with unreliable non-renewable, patented seed which must be bought every year.

In Europe, the 1994 regulation for protection of plant varieties, forced farmers to make a “compulsory voluntary contribution” to seed companies. The terms themselves are contradictory. What is compulsory cannot be voluntary.

In France, a law was passed in November 2011, which makes royalty payments compulsory. As agriculture minister Bruna Le Marie said, “Seeds can no longer be royalty free, as is currently the case.” Of the 5,000 or so cultivated plant varieties, 600 are protected by certificate in France, and these account for 99 per cent of the varieties grown by farmers.

The “compulsory voluntary contribution”, in other words a royalty, is justified on grounds that “a fee is paid to certificate holders (seed companies) to sustain funding of research and efforts to improve genetic resources”.

As Monsanto states “it draws from a collection of germ-plasma that is unparalleled in history” and “mines the diversity in this genetic library to develop elite seeds faster than ever before”. In effect what Monsanto is doing is enclosure of the genetic commons of our biodiversity and the intellectual commons of public breeding by farming communities and public institutions. And what the seed corporation is offering is not “improvement” of genetic resources, but their degradation. Similarly, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa being pushed by the Gates Foundation is a major assault on Africa’s seed sovereignty.

Agribusiness is the only sector in which the US has a positive trade balance, with GM seeds bringing hefty royalties to the US. These royalties are translating into debt traps and suicide for farmers and disappearance of biodiversity worldwide.

Under the US Global Food Security Act, Nepal signed an agreement with USAID and Monsanto. This led to massive protests across the country. India was forced to allow patents on seed through the first dispute brought by the US against India in the WTO. Since 2004, India has also been trying to introduce a Seed Act, which would require farmers to register their own seed and take licences. This, in effect, would prevent farmers from using their indigenous seed varieties. By launching a Seed Satyagraha, handing over hundreds of thousands of signatures to the Prime Minister and working with Parliament, we have so far prevented the Seed Law from being introduced.

India has signed a US-India Agricultural Knowledge Initiative, with Monsanto on the board. States are being pressured to sign agreements with Monsanto. In its MoU signed with the Rajasthan government, Monsanto would get intellectual property rights on all genetic resources and research on seeds coming under the MoU. It took a campaign by Navdanya and a Bija Yatra with the slogan “Monsanto Quit India” to get the government of Rajasthan to cancel the MoU.

The pressure of Monsanto on the US government and the joint pressure of both on the governments across the world is a major threat to the future of seed, the future of food and the future of democracy in these vital spheres of life.

The writer is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust