Farm activists demand withdrawal of all cases in Gujarat potato case by this weekend, company refrains from giving time-frame

NEW DELHI: Amid intense pressure from farmers rights groups and civil society members, the PepsiCo India has withdrawn one lawsuit against two farmers who were involved in growing its registered variety of potato in Gujarat but the fate of nine others is learnt to be decided only when their matters come up before courts in the state.
Though the company has, in principle, agreed to withdraw all lawsuits, it refrained from giving a time-frame to do it. Total 11 Gujarat farmers were sued by the PepsiCo India for growing its registered FC-5 potato variety which is being used in its Lays chips.
The company sought Rs 1 crore each as damages for infringing its rights on the registered variety of seeds, triggering strong protests from farm activists from across the country in favour of protecting rights of farmers.
The activists on Wednesday further stepped up their social media campaign - ‘Withdraw or Face Us, The Choice is Yours’ - demanding withdrawal of all cases against remaining nine farmers by the end of this week. They also questioned the company whether it accepts farmers’ rights under existing law in India.
The Section 39(1)(iv) of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 provides farmers the right to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell their farm produce including seeds of protected/registered variety. It, however, restricts the farmers not to sell branded seed of protected variety under the Act.
“Is the Company accepting farmers’ rights as given in Section 39(1)(iv) of the Act or not? If yes, then why should the withdrawal have any conditions related to discussions with government?” asked Kavitha Kuruganti of the Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA).
She referred to the lawsuit where the company withdrawn a case against two large farmer-traders in the Deesa Court, Banaskantha district of Gujarat on May 6.
Responding to TOI, the company’s spokesperson, said, “PepsiCo India’s submission in the Deesa court on May 6 is in sync with its publicly stated position...To safeguard the larger interest of farmers, PepsiCo India was compelled to take judicial recourse to protect its registered variety. PepsiCo from the very start had also offered an amicable settlement to farmers.
“After discussions with the government, the Company has agreed to withdraw cases against farmers. We are relying on the said discussions to find a long term and an amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection. The company remains deeply committed to the thousands of farmers we work with across the country and towards ensuring adoption of best farming practices.”
The company, however, remained quite over time-frame to withdraw all the cases. The activists have been demanding withdrawal of all cases unconditionally, without any references to discussions with the government of Gujarat. “We are demanding unconditional withdrawal of all cases as no one knows what the discussions (between the company and the Gujarat government) were all about,” said Kuruganti.