USAID? Monsanto tie up for maize crop

The USAID announced that it would launch a programme in partnership with Monsanto, a US-based multinational bio-tech giant, in a bid to enhance maize production in Nepal.

The announcement today comes after about two weeks of WikiLeaks’ revelations how the American government is guided by the interests of giant bio-tech companies like Monsanto.

Interestingly, Monsanto is one of the companies, the product of which when used in the Tarai last year had turned out to be a fiasco with farmers failing to produce corn cobs. Maize planted in thousands of hectares of land had been wasted, and despite protests from the farmers, Monsanto had refused to pay compensation.

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in the last week of August revealed that the diplomats across the globe had been advocating Monsanto and were guided by the interests of the company. Several cables describe ‘biotechnology outreach programmes’ in countries across the globe, including African, Asian and South American countries where Western bio-tech agriculture had yet to gain a foothold.

However, officials at the US Embassy said it was one of the duties of the US embassies across the globe to promote US companies and help them enhance their business. "US embassy facilitates its companies for fostering the market which is normal and also helps to bring the US investment in different sectors if the companies are interested,” said an official at the US Embassy.

"On one hand there is the need to produce more to fulfil the growing demand of food with the increasing population and on the other, our dependency on multinational companies is increasing alarmingly, which is worrisome,” said Bhola Man Singh Basnet, a senior agro expert.

However, Basnet added that giant bio-tech companies like Monsanto pressuring their government to promote their seeds across the globe is but usual.

The Embassy of the United States in Nepal today said the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the Department of Agriculture, USAID and Monsanto have partnered to promote the use of hybrid maize seeds and provide training to farmers in Nepal.

"USAID and Monsanto, in coordination with the government, will implement a pilot maize production project to promote the use of hybrid seeds in the key maize producing districts of Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Kavre,” said the embassy.