Microsoft’s Bill Gates is on China, creeping domination over Asia’s food security

After DuPont in Philippines, Indonesia,
Microsoft’s Bill Gates is on China, Creeping Domination over Asia’s Food Security

After DuPont announcing its partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) located in the Philippines, and the Indonesian Center for Rice Research (ICRR), software mogul Bill Gates signed with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), through his and his wife’s foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an agreement about breeding “green super rice” intended for countries in the African and Asian region with scant resources. In addition, CAAS has already signed agreements and understanding, through its China National Rice Research with Dow in 2008, China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center with DuPont in 2007, and with Bayer in November of 2008. The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) sees this move as US imperialism pushing further the domination and control over Asia’s food security.

“Gate’s foundation is aiming to breed these 15 green super rice varieties but Asian peasants already know that these are dependent on expensive agro-chemicals and in turn, put rice farmers in deep poverty and indebtedness while imperialist agro-corporations and entities rake up huge profits,” opened Danilo Ramos, Secretary-General of APC and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement of the Philippines).

“They say that in the next 3 years, 20 million farmers would increase their harvest by 20 percent. Many have said the same or bigger promises, but farmers were indebted due to expensive agro-chemical requirements, utilities and infrastructure,” added Ramos.

“The very concrete proof that commercial varieties designed by monopoly capitalists such as Gate’s foundation, DuPont, Dow are only for profit and not for the people’s benefit is the nearing 50 useless years of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. For decades they have introduced countless commercial varieties that kept the peasants on the mud of poverty as these varieties require massive use of expensive chemical inputs. While the peasants are indebted because of these costly agricultural inputs, foreign monopoly corporations rake profits as they have already contained the country’s agriculture being dependent on their products,” explained Ramos.

“If imperialist entities established its control over Chinese rice industry, it is one means of leverage of US over China, or as China is like a massive flood of rice that forces itself to Asian countries’ food economy, Gate’s foundation, DuPont and Dow want to ride on that flood to rake up huge profits from Asian countries,” added Ramos.

“With what the imperialist entities are doing, an Asia-wide man-made catastrophe is on the looming if they are successful to penetrate Asian countries’ rice agriculture and wiping off indigenous varieties in favor of their commercial varieties,” said Ramos.

“Also, the Philippines have a grave experience with the flooding of Chinese rice, the previously rice net exporting country was transformed into a net importer when the World Trade Organization (WTO) demolished protectionist measures such as tariffs, for the local rice farmers. Certainly, it would do the same with other Asian and African countries and it is a lesson to be learned,” recalled Ramos.

“Commercial rice such as the hybrid rice is not guaranteed to bring out good harvest as it require loads of chemical inputs which the peasants could not afford or be compelled to loan in order to acquire them. The Philippine rice granary province Nueva Ecija was victimized by the hybrid rice. Those lands used to output 150 cavans were only able to output 49 cavans when hybrid was used, or a 66% drop in production. Then, farmers shared that those who use 8 bags of fertilizer before were forced to use 12 bags for a hectare or an additional 50 percent. Then it became more labor intensive as the stem of the hybrid rice is fragile, thus, harvesting is more time-consuming. The peasants in San Jose City in Nueva Ecija are very mad at the Department of Agriculture as they are who introduced the variety, as their costs of production almost doubled,” Ramos shared.

DuPont, Dow and Gate’s foundation would offer the same thing as long they design rice varieties for profit. APC calls on Asian peasants to ban the use of hybrid as it would definitely lead them to poverty and indebtedness, which would consequently lead to landlessness. Asian countries should learn from the miserable experience of Philippine rice agriculture where the IRRI based in the country for almost 50 years, destroyed its food security, as a rice net exporter then, transformed to being a rice importer. Imperialist agro-corporations are only out to get Asian agriculture on their knees and be dependent of their products, raking up profits in sacrifice of the Asian rice peasants.#