Monsanto Fights With Farmers in Argentina Over Seed Saving

Inter Press Service
February 10, 2004, Tuesday

ARGENTINA: MONSANTO AND FARMERS BATTLE OVER GM SEEDS By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES

The unprecedented expansion of transgenic soy in Argentina, which has become
the country's leading export, has triggered a heated controversy
between seed-patent owners and farmers who defend their right to save
and replant seeds without paying additional royalties.

The government is attempting to arbitrate in the search for an agreement
that takes into account the interests of all sides.

In the meantime, black market sales of genetically modified (GM) soybean
seeds continue to grow, and biotech giant Monsanto decided to suspend sales
of the seeds in Argentina, the world's third-largest producer of soy.

The U.S.-based transnational corporation also called off all further
research and development on new varieties of GM soy specifically adapted to
local conditions in this South American country.

The area planted in soy in Argentina has grown more than 100 percent over
the past five years, since the introduction of Monsanto's Roundup Ready soy,
which is genetically engineered to resist damages from the herbicide
glyphosate (Roundup).

An increase in international demand for soybeans and rising international
prices gave an additional boost to soy production in Argentina over the past
two years.

An exemption contained in Argentina's 1973 "seed law" originally designed to
protect small farmers recognizes the right of farmers to cull seeds for
replanting in the case of self-fertilizing plants like soy or wheat.

Soybean seeds can be culled and re-used without causing any significant
decline in harvest yields, unlike GM sunflowers and sorghum, whose seeds
must be purchased every year.

The "seed law" is interpreted to mean that farmers only have to pay
royalties on the original purchase of GM seeds, but not when they replant
seeds that have been culled and saved.

The right to save seeds for the next harvest is recognized in most countries
around the world since the days prior to the boom in development of GM
crops.

But in some countries, the proportion of land on which farmers can plant
crops using seeds culled from their own harvests is limited.

That is the case of the European Union, the model followed by Argentina's
Secretariat of Agriculture, which argues the need to curb the spread of
seeds that have not been purchased from authorized dealers.

Monsanto Argentina announced in mid-January that it had suspended sales of
GM soybean seeds due to the increase in illegal seed sales, on which no
royalties are paid.

The company complains that not only are farmers culling GM soybean seeds for
their own use, but are also selling them on the black market.

According to estimates by the Secretariat of Agriculture, 20 percent of the
total area planted in soybeans in Argentina is sown with seeds purchased
from authorized dealers; 30 percent with seeds saved by farmers for their
own use; and the remaining 50 percent with seeds culled and sold illegally.

In Argentina, Monsanto was the second-largest seller of GM soybean seeds
after the Netherlands-based Nidera Handelscompagnie B.V., which has a corner
on 58 percent of the market. The other major dealers are the Argentine
companies Asociados Don Mario and Relmo.

Executives with the remaining dealers said their companies might follow
Monsanto's lead if the government fails to effectively combat the illegal
seed sales.

Fernanda Gonzalez with the Argentine Association for the Protection of New
Varieties of Plants (ARPOV), which represents seed-patent owners, told IPS
that the problem does not lie in the right of farmers to save seeds for
replanting, but in the illegal sales of culled GM seeds.

She pointed out that with one and a half bags of seeds purchased from an
authorized dealer and planted on one hectare of land, a farmer obtains a
yield of three tons of soybeans as well as 60 bags of new seeds for planting
another 40 hectares.

"Given that multiplication of seeds, it is not in the seed companies'
interests to continue investing in R&D" on new varieties of plants, she
argued.

In each purchase of seeds, ARPOV has begun to require that farmers sign a
contract for "extended royalties", which obligates farmers to make an
additional payment on the value of seeds saved for replanting, and to report
how the rest of the seeds will be used.

With the assistance of a consultancy firm hired to that end, authorized seed
dealers pressure farmers by means of lengthy interrogations and inspections
in the fields, and send intimidating letters to demand explanations on how
they have used the GM seeds obtained in their harvests.

Farmers are opposed to the "extended royalties" contracts and to inspections
of their fields, which they see as verging on the illegal. They also protest
that such practices trample their longstanding right to save seeds for
re-use.

But Gonzalez complained that "the problem is that when the 'seed law' was
passed, and the concept of the right to save and replant seeds was
established, the lawmakers had small farmers in mind, not powerful
agribusiness producers farming 500,000 hectares and making big profits off
the investments that others have made in biotechnology."

In an interview with IPS, agricultural engineer Bernardo Laurel, the
secretary of Rural Confederations of Argentina, said the country's farmers
are defending their right to save and replant their own seeds, but that they
are opposed to the illegal trade in seeds.

Under Argentine law, surplus seeds can legally be sold for producing flour
or meal, or for export. But Laurel acknowledged that some farmers also
illegally sell culled seeds for replanting by other farmers. Seed dealers
say the "extended royalties" contracts are aimed at combating only illegal
sales of saved seeds.

"In Europe, around 70 percent of the seeds planted have been purchased from
authorized dealers, while here that proportion is less than 20 percent,"
said Laurel. "The rest includes seeds that were culled and legally saved for
the farmer's own use, as well as seeds sold on the black market, which
reduces the motivation of seed companies for investing in R&D."

The Argentine Agrarian Federation, which represents small and medium
farmers, mainly soybean producers, also defends the right to replant saved
seeds, and insists that it is not the Federation's members who are illegally
selling seeds.

"You need a big structure for that," Jorge Solmi, the head of the
Federation's Buenos Aires office, commented to IPS.

The international environmental watchdog Greenpeace, which accuses Monsanto
of using the threat of pulling out of Argentina to "blackmail" the
government into approving the planting of transgenic corn, agrees that it is
not the small farmers who are selling seeds on the black market, because
they do not have the warehouses needed for the selection and storage of
seeds.

Solmi admitted, however, that some farmers do find it profitable to sell
culled seeds to cooperatives, neighboring farmers or seed collectors, thus
washing their hands of the final use given to the seeds.

Culled seeds sold for replanting fetch twice the price of seeds that go
towards the production of soybean meal or oil.

Laurel agreed that the patent rights of those who invest in biotechnology
should be respected. But in his view, the growth of the black market for GM
seeds is not the responsibility of farmers, but of the state, due to the
lack of necessary controls and enforcement procedures.

The National Seed Institute (INASE), in charge of overseeing seed production
and sales and guaranteeing the transparency of the sector, was closed down
in 2000. Since then, illegal seed sales have spiralled out of hand.

The Secretariat of Agriculture decided to reopen the Institute and seek an
in-depth solution to the problem.

The state loses an estimated $ 62 million a year due to the illegal sales of
soybean and wheat seeds, according to a study by ARPOV that focused on the
evasion of tax and other payments to state coffers.

INASE official Monica Pequeno told IPS that Argentina's "seed law" has
"excellent" foundations, and provides a legal framework that is continuously
updated by regulatory decrees as new challenges arise in the fields of
agriculture and biotechnology.

Pequeno said the possibility of drafting a bill on "global royalties" is
currently being studied. The new law would levy a sales tax on bags of
seeds, to create a fund that would be proportionally divided between
companies that own seed patents. The fund would be administered by the
Secretariat of Agriculture.

Although seed companies accept the proposal, because it upholds the spirit
of protecting intellectual property, farmers are opposed to it, rejecting
any new tax, as well as any mechanism that threatens the right to save seeds
for replanting.

The Secretariat of Agriculture is also studying the possibility of adhering
to the 1991 act of the International Convention for the Protection of New
Varieties of Plants, as seed companies are demanding.

The Convention protects seed-patent holders because it forces farmers to
report how seeds obtained in their harvests were used.

Argentina is currently a signatory to the 1978 act of the Convention, which
provides strong protection for the right of farmers to save and replant
seeds, and exempts them from providing explanations on how culled seeds were
used.

But the 1978 version of the treaty predates the biotechnology revolution,
and many small and medium farmers realize that they are facing serious risks
of losing the battle for farmers' rights to re-use seeds.