Farmers to oppose Del-Mum industrial corridor

Farmers' representatives from across the country will on Sunday launch a Food Sovereignty movement to highlight the problems being faced by the growers like threat to fertile land from special economic zones.

"The Food Sovereignty Charter has been jointly drafted by S P Shukla, former GATT ambassador and member Planning Commission, former Prime Minister V P Singh and Navdanya. Through this we plan to start a movement across the country," Vandana Siva, founder of Navdanya, told reporters.

The movement also aims to oppose SEZs and newly-announced Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as it threatens farmers' livelihood and the country's food security, she claimed.

The Bharatiya Krishak Samaj, Shetkari Sangathan, Farmers union of CPI and CPM, and the organisations opposing POSCO and Vedanta in Orissa, SEZ in Nandigram and the industrial corridor are participating in the food sovereignty movement.

"The aim was to link all the movements together. Some of the movements are going to consolidate their past work like SEZs. The Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor is about 1,500 km in length. We are producing six tonnes per hectare in this area and we are facing a situation of two lakh hectares being affected by this corridor," Siva said.

T Haque, Chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture said, "There is a need for an integrated policy for the agriculture sector, national rehabilitation policy, health and education as they are all interrelated."