PepsiCo should have apologised for intimidation of farmers; ASHA

Economic Times May 03, 2019

 By Ratna Bhusan
The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (or ASHA) has said PepsiCo “should have apologised for the intimidation and harassment of farmers", in context of the company suing nine farmers in Gujarat for alleged “rights infringement” on the grounds that they “illegally” grew its registered potato variety used to make Lays chips. 


On Thursday, PepsiCo India said it is withdrawing its legal case against farmers in Gujarat after intense backlash from political parties, concerns from its headquarters in New York and Dubai to resolve the issue at the earliest and work as a team, and heightened social media backlash. 

The statement from ASHA, an alliance of close to 400 organisations, also said the government should put in place clear mechanisms to avoid a repeat of incidents like these in future. 

The India arm of the US-based beverages and snacks maker said in a statement on Thursday that it has "agreed to withdraw cases against farmers after discussionswith the Government”. A company spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “We are relying on the said discussions to find a long term and an amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection.” 

Senior leaders of BJP, Congress and Swadeshi Jagran Manch had condemned PepsiCo’s decision to sue farmers in Gujarat. Last week, PepsiCo had offered to withdraw the legal cases against the Gujarat farmers provided the farmers stop producing the FC5 variety of potato. 

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