The Hindu Business Line : Monsanto helps reduce child labour in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Aug 7 Monsanto, a leading global provider of technology-based solutions and agricultural products that improve productivity, has encouraged Gujarat farmers to reduce child labour from 20 per cent to less than 1 per cent since 2004.

The company, which has implemented a human rights anti-child labour programme in the State, organised farmer awareness campaign, external third party audits and an incentive/disincentive drive to help educate farmers to produce hybrid cotton seeds with adult labour only, Ms Maureen Mazurek, Global Human Rights Director, Monsanto Company, told a news conference here on Thursday.

Monsanto hybrid cotton production fields represent 5 per cent of Gujarat’s hybrid cotton seed production acres.

It began producing hybrid cotton seed in Gujarat in 2007 on 250 acres along with the anti-child labour programme, which is being expanded to 1,900 acres this year, covering 177 small and large-holding farmers.

For the anti-child labour campaign, it tied up with a Vadodara-based NGO, she added.

Farmers employing only adult labour received an additional incentive of average Rs 3,750 an acre, depending on the quantity of seed produced, which helped them afford adult labour. In India, Monsanto has pledged during the last six years more than Rs 16 crore, including Rs 11 crore in anti-child labour programme, for different community development initiatives as part of its CSR in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Jharkhand.