In a USAID press release last month announcing a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and Monsanto on a pilot maize production project in Nepal, we heard the same tired arguments of more nutritious food, increased yields and food security, and the requirement of less chemicals.

As elsewhere, these arguments were used to justify the introduction of hybrid seeds and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). Throughout the world there is evidence to the contrary. Two years after the introduction of Monsanto seeds in Canada and the United States, for example, yields started to go down between 10-15 per cent. There has been a substantial increase in the use of chemicals resulting in the creation of "super weeds" requiring more highly toxic "super" chemicals, some containing agent orange.

Canadian activists say Monsanto uses test plots to introduce GMOs into a country because the dominant gene in the new seeds spread through pollination, contaminating conventional and organic farms. Only four years after the introduction of Monsanto's seeds in Canada, no pure canola seeds and no pure soybean seeds remain.

It is frightening, then, that under the pretext of 'improving food security' USAID will be implementing the pilot program in the key and already well established maize producing districts of Chitwan, Nawalparasi, and Kabhre.

To gain control of the seed supply, Monsanto is known to  intentionally break down the social fabric of rural communities. In a country where people, including USAID, are working to build cohesion, this is a crucial point to consider. Monsanto takes away a farmer's right and ability to use his/her own seed and forever after farmers must buy their seeds and chemicals from Monsanto.

Hybrid maize seeds were actually introduced in Nepal a decade ago. In the foothills where I am living and researching environmental change, farmers are currently using hybrid corn seeds produced by the Indian company Shriram Bioseed Genetics, among others.

Hybrid seeds need chemical fertiliser. Nowadays, if people do not increase their chemical fertiliser use each year, their crops will not grow. New grasses, disease and insects have also arrived, native grasses have been compromised and the soil damaged. Poor farmers must spend more money and time dealing with this.

Heirloom seeds do not grow well in the new chemical 'rich' soil so people here are forced further into a relationship of dependency with the Agricultural Development Office where they must buy hybrid seeds and chemical fertiliser. All this adds to their monthly expenses, which they can ill afford.

If hybrid seeds have already been introduced and, more than likely, farmers in the target districts already provided with training from the districts' agricultural offices, and if already well-established agri-business companies exist in Nepal, why has USAID chosen to work in partnership with Monsanto, if not for control of the seed supply and future introduction of GMOs?

USAID and Monsanto are not implementing this program for the 'development' of Nepal and the betterment of the people. It will profit both, and cement the relationship between the US government and Monsanto already revealed in Wikileaks.

A small number of thulo manchhe haru in the Nepal government will profit, but Nepali farmers will get poorer, Nepali soil will be damaged. The export potential will very likely be damaged with many countries refusing to import food products from Monsanto's hybrid and GMO seeds. If the pilot program goes ahead, the United States will leave a legacy of environmental degradation, human health issues, social disintegration and hardship.

The USAID-Monsanto partnership is blatant exploitation of a corrupt and unstable government in Nepal. There is no 'point of no return' when it comes to this issue. Monsanto's presence in Nepal will be irreversible and will result in the introduction of genetically-modified crops, further alienating farmers from their land and food production, with disastrous consequences.

The majority of the people of Nepal will not be better off, in fact, their lives and livelihoods will be made more difficult.

Sascha Fuller is a PhD candidate in environmental anthropology at the University of Sydney, Australia and is currently conducting research in rural Nepal.

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