The terminator technology is a method by which hybrid seeds are rendered sterile. These seeds are produced by crossing two different varieties of a crop, where each variety has a different set of characteristics. The first step is akin to the prevalent practice of hybridisation, where a new variety of crop is developed that inculcates desired characteristics from two or more varieties. Thus for example a disease resistant variety of cotton may be crossed with a drought resistant variety to produce a crop that is both disease resistant and drought resistant. But the terminator technology does not stop at just hybridisation. The hybrid variety produced by the technology retains the ability to produce seeds that are fertile, i.e. they can germinate to produce another crop in the next season. But the seeds have a built in chemical "switch". If the seeds are treated with a particular chemical (at present tetracycline is being used), the chemical "switch" is activated and the seeds become sterile -- they will produce one crop, but the seeds obtained from this crop will not germinate. The seed company which owns the seeds can produce generations of seeds without activating the chemical switch. But before selling the seeds the chemical "switch" would be activated to render the seeds sterile after one germination.

The new technology is qualitatively different from the standard practice of plant hybridization that has been practised for years. Improved varieties obtained through hybridisation have offered some advantages to farmers such as increased yield and vigour. Fruits and vegetables produced through this technique, like larger varieties of tomatoes, "seedless" grapes, larger oranges, etc. are available in most parts of India today. Commercially bred hybrids do not produce seeds of the same quality as the first generation of seeds -- thus forcing the farmer to buy commercial seeds every year. Large scale introduction of hybrid varieties has led to increased dependence on seed producers. While in many areas this has meant dependence on multinational seed corporation, in India public sector institutions like the Indian Agricultural Research Institution (IARI) and Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have largely pioneered the development of hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds have played a major role in increasing productivity because of introduction of characteristics like high yields, and disease and drought resistance.

Unabashed "Control Method"

However, the new Terminator technology is an unabashed "control method". It is not designed to produce varieties that provide benefits to farmers in the form of better and healthier crops, but is specifically designed to prevent farmers from using seeds saved from their farms for planting in the next season. It is aimed solely at the purpose of preventing the germination of anything that is grown in the farmer’s field. In exchange the farmer does not receive any benefit. The sole purpose is to facilitate monopoly control and the sole beneficiary is agribusiness controlled by multinational corporations.

It is maintained by the Terminator’s proponents that farmers will still have a choice between hybridized or open-pollinated varieties. While this is true, farmers still need the help of publicly funded research to breed new open pollinated varieties that are able to resist the ever evolving natural adversaries of drought, pests, etc. It may be remembered that the "Green Revolution" in India in the sixties and seventies was made possible through public funded research. Institutes like the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) were responsible for introducing the new varieties that greatly enhanced agricultural output in some parts of the country. Today, trends show that such public funded research will soon form a small proportion of new research in agriculture. Transnational seed corporations are poised to gain monopoly control over agriculture across the world, by monopolising the business of seed production. The terminator technology can prove to be a major weapon towards this end.

There is another reason why corporations would be keen to push through the terminator technology. Crops like rice, wheat, sorghum and soya-beans are difficult to hybridise. Because of this, they are largely ignored by large agribusiness breeders. It is precisely these crops that will be the principal targets of the new technology. With the advent of this new technology, breeders will soon produce patented versions of previously "open-pollinated" crops — varieties that Third World farmers have been breeding, saving and replanting themselves for thousands of years.

Third World is the Primary Target

The U. S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Willard Phelps has commented that "Second and Third World" markets were primary targets for the Terminator technology. Why did the USDA collude to develop a process to sterilize seed bound the Third World? It did so because investments flow where large profits are possible. If Third World staple crops such as rice and wheat can be locked up with the Terminator technology, investors will pour money into commercially bred seed that farmers will have to buy year after year. Because Third World staple crops could not be "controlled" until now, agribusiness breeders were not interested in developing seed for those markets.

Proponents of the terminator technology claim that because the second generation seed is sterile, it will be safer to introduce genetically-modified organisms into new varieties. This will, they argue, speed up biotech advances in agriculture and increase productivity. But opponents of the technology have countered this by saying that the sterility trait in seeds produced by the technology will infect neighbouring fields of open-pollinated crops causing crop failures while creating additional markets for Transnational seed corporations.

It needs also to be understood that till now improved varieties have been produced by crossing hybridising existing varieties with other varieties that have useful properties. The latter have largely been obtained from crops being grown in Third World countries of Asia, S.America and Africa. This is so because these regions continue to sustain a large diversity of plant resources, mainly in the fields of poor and marginal farmers. In the developed N.America, Europe and parts of East Asia agriculture is predominantly dependant on crops produced from seeds supplied by a handful of seed corporations. Huge tracts are covered by monoculture - that is a crop of on single variety. That is why Transnational seed corporations need to come back to the farmers in the Third World whenever the need to produce new hybrids arise. Third World farmers have managed to safeguard the large variety of plant resources because they continue to use seeds saved from their farms. This is precisely the kind of practice that the terminator technology will curtail, thus severely reducing biodiversity on a global scale as well as the independence of farmers.

The new Terminator technology was developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in partnership with Delta Pine Land Company, a large commercial seed breeder, who announced on March 3rd, 1998 that it had been awarded a patent on the technology. At present only cotton and tobacco seeds have been proven to respond to the new technique, but the firm plans to have the Terminator ready for a much broader range of crops shortly after the year 2000. US Patent No. 5,723,765, granted to Delta Pine Land Co., doesn’t just cover the firm’s cotton and soya-bean seed business but potentially all cultivated crops. Under a research agreement with the USDA, the company has the exclusive right to license (or not) the new technology to others. In another significant development the Delta Pineland Co. has since been acquired by the giant agribusiness corporation, Monsanto. Patents have been applied for the technology in 78 countries, most of them in the South, though India’s name has not yet been included. The patent is broad and applies to seeds of all species, including those genetically altered within the laboratory.