PBS : Agricultural Problems Lead to Farmer Suicides in India...

KRISNABHAI TEKHAM (through translator) : He came home from the field, and he collapsed. His mouth was smelling of pesticide, so we put him on a cart and took him to the hospital in town, but he died on the way.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO : Dalap Tekham leaves a young daughter, his 38-year-old widow, and her elderly father, whose land he also used to plant.

INDIAN FARMER (through translator) : The crop has just dried up. We have so much debt, my son-in-law couldn’t pay it. I have no idea how we can deal with it now.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO : In an unmarked grave some two miles from where he lived, Dalap Tekham was laid to rest. He added one to a grim tally. Here in the Vidarbha region of central India, some 1,300 cotton farmers took their own lives in 2006. That works out to a suicide rate of one every eight hours.

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FRED DE SAM LAZARO : ... peasant farmers used to use natural fertilizers and pesticides, and they grew and saved their own seeds to plant the next year’s crop. In the ’70s, coaxed by the government and international aid donors, farmers began to use hybrid seeds bought in the store. These offered the promise of better yields and disease resistance, but they can require careful management, including chemical fertilizer and pesticides.

More recently, genetically modified BT cotton seeds were introduced by St. Louis-based Monsanto, licensed and sold under the names of well-known Indian seed companies. BT seeds are patented, so farmers aren’t allowed to grow and replant them. They must be bought every year from the seed companies, which market them with film stars and even Hindu deities, says Vandana Shiva.

VANDANA SHIVA : All the gods and divinities of this amazingly diverse country have been mobilized to sell toxic seed and non-renewable seed, and farmers have been seduced by it.

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FRED DE SAM LAZARO : Mandre is learning that his new crop is not as disease-resistant as the ad said. His is the classic saga in which many illiterate farmers eventually lose their land, says Vandana Shiva.

VANDANA SHIVA : That innocent farmer is grabbed by the agent, who says, "Here’s a miracle seed that’s going to double your income. You’re going to be a millionaire. Put your thumb print out here." The farmer has no idea what he’s signing onto. The farmer has no idea that, two weeks down the line, he’ll have to come back for pesticide. But then the leaves will start shriveling up, the agent will say, "No, no, you also needed irrigation. We didn’t tell that to you in the beginning, so take a tube well loan, and here’s another loan."

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