The Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: Social and Environmental Perspective of GM Crops

Anita Bhatt

The Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: Social and Environmental Perspective of GM Crops

Author(s)	Dr. Anita Bhatt
Country	India
Abstract	The suicide rate among farmers in India continues to rise in human history. According to the report titled "Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights, and the Agrarian Crisis in India” by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at New York University estimates that on average, one farmer commits suicide every 30 minutes in India. The report focuses on the repeated failure of Genetically Modified (GM) crops responsible for the agrarian dilemma in recent years in certain states of Northern, Central and Southern India. The GM seeds are dominated by many protectionist designed multinational corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, BASF, DuPont, and Dow Chemical. The objectives of the paper are presented: Firstly, to analysis how the use of GM seeds and agrochemicals in cultivation has become a contentious issue, leading to farmers’ suicides due to its detrimental impact on socio-economic structures. Secondly, to review how have GM crops and excessive use of agrochemicals have added a new aspect to the issue of environmental impact that occurred in the cotton cultivating region in past decades in Maharashtra. Thirdly, the paper also investigates the important role played by an environmental non-governmental organisation (NGOs) like ‘Navdanya’ to resist the agri-business of GM seed and chemical insecticides. Navdanya undertook seed activism as the farmer’s rights over seeds through the ‘Seeds Sovereignty’ campaigns. They also drew public and governmental attention towards environmental governance through several campaigns and initiatives. The research study is based upon the hypothesis that the shift to the neoliberal model of agriculture has been contributed economic marginalization of Indian farmers as a form of ‘social injustice’. This is reflected in the continued unsustainable cropping practices which have certainly increased the economic distress of farmers. On the other hand, the agriculture sector is fundamentally linked to the environment and is strongly interdependent. Hence, the adoption of extensive monoculture which was combined with the excessive application of pesticides has contributed to the negative agro-environmental impact through exposures to toxic residues which pose a hazard to humans and ecological integrity like soil and water.
Keywords	Environmental Justice, Globalisation, GM Crops, Farmer, Monsanto, Pesticide Seeds, Suicides
Published In	Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 2021
Published On	2021-12-04

View / Download PDF File

E-ISSN 2582-2160

doi

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

IJFMR DOI prefix is
10.36948/ijfmr

Downloads

Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 2 Cover Page Vol 8 Isu 1 Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 6

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA

About IJFMR Fees & Payment Current Issue Publication Archive	Submit Research Paper Track Submission Status Publication Guidelines Publication Ethics Peer Review & Plagiarism	Join as a Reviewer Editors & Reviewers Reviewer Referral Program Get Reviewer Membership Certi.	Website/Journal Policies Usage Policy Content Policies Privacy Policy

Contact Us		+91-9687-828-838	editor@ijfmr.com

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

The Farmer Suicides in Maharashtra: Social and Environmental Perspective of GM Crops

Share this