Gandhinagar: A day after the announcement of withdrawal of Rs one crore compensation demand lawsuit against four farmers of Gujarat, senior officials of the Indian wing of the US based food and beverage company PepsiCo, PepsiCo India will hold a meeting with the state government today.

DyCM Nitin Patel said that the Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) would participate in the meeting. If available CM Vijay Rupani would also remain present during the meeting.

To a query he said that as the company has already announced the withdrawal there won’t be any farmer present in the meeting.

Notably Pepsico India had yesterday announced to take back the case filed in a commerce court in Ahmedabad against four Gujarat potato farmers accused of infringing its patent of a particular variety of potato used in its popular Lay’s Chips.

The case filed last month is being withdrawn after the assurance from the government about a long term amicable solution.

The meeting is likely to discuss various related issues.

The company had sued the four farmers from Vadali Taluka in Sabarkantha district in North Gujarat and sought a compensation of Rs one crore from each one of them.

The company had during hearing of the matter in court here on April 26 had offered to stop pursuing the suit if they agreed to join the group of farmers doing potato farming for it. The court had fixed the next date of hearing on June 12.

Pepsico’s Indian subsidiary had filed lawsuits against the farmers earlier this month for cultivating FC5 variety of potato for which it has obtained plant variety protection rights till 2031.

Notably farmer unions and activists were opposing Pepsico for filing the case. They have even alleged that the US company illegally using private detectives filmed the farmers for filing the case. The company had sought damages of $143,000 (Rs one crore) from each farmer.

The company had in the court said that it was compelled to take the judicial recourse as a last resort to safeguard the larger interest of thousands of farmers that are engaged with its collaborative potato farming program. It had said as part of its offer that it would not be seeking any compensation if the farmers agree join its cultivation program.

Notably, districts like Sabarkantha, Banaskantha and Aravalli in North Gujarat have become a hub of potato farming. Many of the farmers sell their potato to various chips and other snacks maker companies.

DeshGujarat