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AMRITA BHOOMI - A PEOPLE TO PEOPLE INITIATIVE - STARTED ON THE 1st, SEPTEMBER,2002 The decision of Indian farmers to start an international centre for sustainable development as an alternative to the efforts of privatisation of Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture by the protagonists of 'Free Trade', which also was conceived as an institution of Civil Disobedience against the global powers attempting to create monopolies over food and agriculture, has started becoming a reality inspite of the many odds, which the farmers had to face, created by some short-sighted non-governmental organisations. This resolve which was announced in 1993 when the Indian farmers started the ''Seed Satyagraha'' in a meeting attended by 500,000 farmers in Bangalore, India, is being realised only this year in 2002. ''Seed Satyagraha'' is a continuous non-violent battle against Intellectual property rights in agriculture. The Centre which is called as ''Amrita Bhoomi'' [which translated into English means ''The Eternal Planet''] is a Public Charitable Trust not connected with any particular farmers organisation but is dedicated totally to the Indian Farmers Movement, was inaugurated on the 1st of September 2002 at Jyothigowdanapura Village in the District of Chamarajanagar in Karnataka, India. The Centre which is coming up with over a hundred acres of land, will have a National Seed Bank to collect and conserve all available indigenous varieties of seeds, plants, Trees and medicinal plants, will also have a Gene Bank, a Green School, teaching informally environmental issues and a school of Civil Disobedience. The centre will have an International Advisory body of farmers and scientists and a National Advisory Body represented by all the farmers movements from all the States of India. Presentation of the objectives of the centre was made by Prof.M.D.Nanjundaswamy who is the Managing Trustee of the Centre, after which the Centre was inaugurated by peasant children of the village who are the future custodians of Mother Earth which was followed by honouring the 97 small farmers who gave their land to the centre by the Chairperson of the Italian People's Organisation - Stati Uniti del Mondo[SUM] which is collaborating with ''Amrita Bhoomi'', who spoke immediately after this event. She expressed the need to act upon the causes of the problems Planet Earth is facing rather than upon the effects and thanked all those who are joining 'Amrita Bhoomi' to create a World of joy and Health, a world of peace and collaboration, a world of justice and world of True love. The meeting was joined by peasant leaders from the North and the South of India and was attended by a few thousand farmers from the various districts of Karnataka. The meeting ended with the entire gathering taking an oath to protect the PLANET EARTH. After the inaugural meeting, the ''Amrita Bhoomi'' community participated in the reception raised by the Faculty and the students of neighbouring National School in which they also pledged support to this movement to design a way of life to live with nature without damaging it. |
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