Tanzanian farmers are facing heavy prison sentences if they continue their traditional seed exchange!
In
order to receive development assistance, Tanzania has to give Western
agribusiness full freedom and give enclosed protection for patented
seeds. “Eighty percent of the seeds are being shared and sold in an
informal system between neighbors, friends and family. The new law
criminalizes the practice in Tanzania,” says Michael Farrelly of
TOAM, an organic farming movement in Tanzania.
Brutal
corporate onslaught against third world - Part 1
In order to
get developmental assistance, Tanzania amended its legislation, which
should give commercial investors faster and better access to
agricultural land as well as a very strong protection of intellectual
property rights.
‘If you
buy seeds from Syngenta or Monsanto under the new legislation, they
will retain the intellectual property rights. If you save seeds from
your first harvest, you can use them only on your own piece of land
for non-commercial purposes. You’re not allowed to share them with
your neighbors or with your sister-in-law in a different village, and
you cannot sell them for sure. But that’s the entire foundation of
the seed system in Africa’, says Michael Farrelly.
Under the
new law, Tanzanian farmers risk a prison sentence of at least 12
years or a fine of over €205,300, or both, if they sell seeds that
are not certified.
‘That’s
an amount that a Tanzanian farmer cannot even start to imagine. The
average wage is still less than 2 US dollars a day’, says Janet
Maro, head of Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT).
Source:
http://www.mo.be/en/analysis/tanzanian-farmers-are-facing-heavy-prison-sentences-if-they-continue-their-traditional-seed
[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Big corporations are grabbing huge
cultivable areas especially in the developing countries in order
to control food production.
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