FW: BBC

[james armstrong]

From: james36armstrong at hotmail.com
To: charlotte.smith at bbc.co.uk
Subject: BBC
Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 08:42:15 +0000




 £3.4bn  out of £5.7bn 2011 UK  farm incomes was from CAP payments. Richard King of  Andersons and Chalotte Smith forgot to tell  FT listeners this morning.  Could you help please by telling me the source of the £5.7bn  figure?  
     
 EFFECT OF  CAP AND FTA ON INDIAN WOMEN FARMERS 
FT Listeners might like to hear about the effects of CAP on 200 million Indian women farmers.




This extract from a paper by two  researchers, Singh and Sengupta,  in New Delhi
can help Farming  Today inform listeners
about the more obscure effects of UK
agriculture and CAP and the Free Trade Association (FTA) .

Supporters of subsidies to British farmers should consider
the effects on   women and poor
farmers  in India.
 (75% of Indian women are engaged in
agriculture.)  Does this paper suggest  CAP  and
UK farming  help or hinder feeding the worlds growing
population?  Or does it help or
hinder  agriculture in UK?
    

 


India
has been negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union.
Agriculture is very much part of this FTA.

The CAP encompasses export subsidies and import tariffs. To
accomodate  pre CAP  export import  trade , and with a view to the effect of domestic
CAP subsidies special arrangements are made which govern India’s
and others’ imports and exports to EU.

 

In 2007?  I attended a
conference at  the Jawarahal Nehru
Institute in New Delhi  addressed by the Gov of India Agriculture
Minister .  

A paper (on line) by Singh and Sengupta. raises some of the
issues  discussed there.

 Here are some extracts:

START 


Since 2007  India
has been negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU . Agriculture is very
much part of this FTA.

The negotiating text is a secret document…    The EU are known for their pervasive
coverage of agriculture  including the
removal of export and import restrictions , 
..comp-licated dealings in  NTBS (Non
Trade Barrier Systems ) and strong protection of foreign investment …
significant  impact on India’s
population.. …..different effects  on
different groups.

 

This paper  is on the
impact on women. ..(who) do not have equal access to resources…. Constrained by
time and income poverty.  …impact of  FTA on women and on all agricultural workers.
.

 

75% of all women workforce are engaged in agriculture.   Within agriculture  94% of women in crop cultivation ..

Agriculture combined with work at home is an easy source of
work for women.

The impact on Indian women is particularly determined
by  the Indian agriculture  sector in the wake of FTA.      Agriculture  is an easy source of work for women,  though women are confined  to low end jobs like sowing, transplanting, weeding
and harvesting.

Many women work as unpaid family labour. 

 

 

Strong  IPR’s  pressure to join UPOV a threat to  Indian agriculture.    UPOV 1991 prevents the farmers from saving
using and freely exchanging seeds  and
the registration of  extant farmers’
benefits from  innovations  for their own 
varieties is threatened. Removal of tariffs under the FTA’s will give
unfettered access to these markets.  Many
of these are gender sensitive products.  
EU significant impact on women farmers 
and on women workers in agro  processing.
 Liberalisation and investment can skew
access to land in addition to removing women thro increased  mechanization.     Increased control over knowledge….limits
use of traditional plants  and
cultivation measures./

EU India  FTA likely
to  in-equalise  women’s  access 
to livelihood, food and basic 
resources . Women further disadvantaged …     easily replaced  or underpaid.

(as above) India
needs seriously to consider options in liberalizing agro trade and food
security of vulnerable sections  like
women .

Careful thought is needed in 
a country where poverty is high inequality is rising ….

(There has been...) inadequate preparedness for such an ambitious  FTA with the EU.      END


 JA May 2012  



 		 	   		   		 	   		  
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