LAGUNA, Philippines – A Statement signed by 100 people's organizations from all over Asia calling for the closure of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was launched last July 17 at the very university hosting the institution.
The petition Statement, entitled "50 Years of IRRI is Enough!" was presented during a forum on "GMOs and Food Security: Trends and New Developments in Food and Agriculture" at the College of Agriculture in the University of the Philippines, Los Baños, Laguna, where IRRI headquarters is located.
The petition Statement was spearheaded by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP), GRAIN and the Asian Peasants Coalition (APC) for the People's Year of Rice Action (YORA) that started on 4 April 2009 and will last until 4 April 2010 (4 April is the anniversary of IRRI). It was supported by MASIPAG and other local groups from "RESIST! Agrochemical TNCs Network" in the Philippines which have opposed IRRI and its technologies and policies for decades as well as by concerned people's organizations across Asia.
The Statement asserts that "[IRRI] played a critical role in the development and expansion of a model of agriculture that has left farmers and the poor at the mercy of a transnational agribusiness industry which is reaping obscene profits as people starve" and calls for the abolition of IRRI.
"This petition articulates how much damage IRRI has inflicted upon the small rice farmers and rice heritage of Asia, as evidenced by the unsustainable state of rice production and the abject poverty of rural rice communities today. This is why there is an unequivocal call for its closure. Better no IRRI than a bad one," says Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP.
The petition states: "Fifty years of IRRI is enough! The best thing IRRI can do for rice is to close down and give the seeds it has collected back to the farmers….We need food systems based on small farmers' control over seeds, land, water, and energy. We need them now. Not another year of IRRI!"
"Governments are relying on GMOs to supposedly achieve food security," said Dr. Chito Medina, National Coordinator of MASIPAG (Farmers and Scientist Partnership for Development of Agriculture), one of the main organizers of the forum. "However, we should learn from our experience with IRRI that modern technologies developed without the small farmers' interests as the basis will ultimately fail. We are now seeing the same trend with IRRI's attempt with GM rice."
The forum itself was organized by MASIPAG and Third World Network (TWN), in cooperation with the College of Agriculture Student Council, National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates Youth -College of Agriculture (NNARA Youth-CA) and Advocates for Science and Technology for the People-Southern Tagalog (AGHAM-ST). It covered the general trends in the development of genetically modified crops in the world and the Philippines and was attended by more than 130 local students, faculty and researchers.
The Statement will be presented to IRRI and widely disseminated to relevant bodies and organizations. It is up on PAN AP's website at www.panap.net/irriclosure for those who wish to sign on.
For more details, please contact:
Clare Westwood/ Teoh Peir Yan
Save Our Rice Campaign
Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP)
Tel: 60 4 657 0271 or 656 0381
Fax: 60 4 658 3960
Email: panap@panap.net
Website: www.panap.net