The Hindu Business Line : WSF: `Cheap farm imports will lead to mass displacement'

DISPLACEMENT and loss of traditional means of livelihood are themes that run through economies across the world as globalisation progresses. At the World Social Forum 2004, farmers and activists from around the world said they would oppose agriculture being included in World Trade Organisation negotiations.

"We stopped them at Seattle, we stopped them at Cancun and we will be there in Hong Kong," said French farmer and activist Mr Jose Bove and called for a new "Quit India" movement against multinational companies like Coca-Cola, Nestle and Monsanto.

Cheap farm imports would perhaps be responsible for the displacement of the largest number of people in India in the coming years, said Mr Devinder Sharma of the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security. "By 2010, the rural population migrating to cities in India would be four times the population of the UK," Mr Sharma said.

Mr Bove said transnational corporations are encouraging industrial agriculture that is profitable only for them. That model of farming however destroys environment and threatens food security. Calling the WTO's agriculture policy as criminal, Mr Bove said it dispossess the farmer of his farmland.

"After China joined the WTO two years ago, 100 million farmers of that country were driven out of their farms. Chinese economists predict another 350 million would lose their livelihood over the next five years, he said.

Echoing the concerns of small farmers all over the world, Mr Rafel Alegria, whose Via Campesina represents about 60 million Honduran farmers, said they are launching an international campaign to protect the farmer's right to use his own seeds and stop the spread of transgenic varieties. The WTO proposes to bring seed varieties under its patent regime that would force farmers to buy seeds from transnational corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill.

Magsasay award winner and leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan, Ms Medha Patkar, said natural resources are being taken away from indigenous people in three ways - control, contract and consumerism. "Without right to land and natural resources, human rights cannot be guaranteed. Indigenous communities should have the first right (to land and resources). We oppose any help from the World Bank or IMF that would bring destruction and displacement," Ms Patkar said.