Pepsico concedes defeat against Indian farmers

Pepsico lays down arms against the nine Indian farmers they had accused of Intellectual Property Rights infringement of illegally growing its registered potatoes. The officials of Pesico initially wanted to seek damages of Rs 1.05 crore from each one of the farmers. Over 190 activists supported the Indian farmers and solicited the union government to ask Pepsico India to draw out its “bogus” cases due to which the company has finally agreed to withdraw its cases against the farmers after discussions with the Indian government. A Pepsico India spokesperson added in an emailed statement, “We are relying on the said discussions to find a long-term and amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection.” Initially, Pepsico had offered to settle with the farmers by asking them either to sell their crops to Pepsi or stop growing them. But then, there was a social media backlash and repeated attacks by the political parties that led to pressure from its New York and Dubai offices to resolve the issue at the earliest.

Activists are now requesting the Indian government to give more support to the farmers so that they can grow crops according to their needs. Even the Indian political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress had tweeted against the company’s brazenly wrong decision to sue the farmers. The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) also stated, “The government should put into clear mechanisms to avoid a repetition of this episode in future and Pepsico should have apologized for the intimidation and harassment of farmers in this case.” Pepsico admitted in a statement that it had spent many years working with thousands of Indian farmers and was eventually compelled by the Indian government to withdraw its case against the farmers not affiliated with its potato farming practice. More Visit: http://kashishipr.com/