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The film follows Manjusha, whose father was one of the quarter-million��farmers who have committed suicide in India in the last 16 years.

Farmers become trapped in a cycle of debt trying to make a living growing��Monsanto's genetically engineered Bt cotton. They always live close to the��edge, but one season's ruined crop can dash hopes of ever paying back their��loans, much less enabling their families to get ahead. Manjusha's father,��like many other suicide victims, killed himself by drinking the pesticide he��spreads on his crops.

Monsanto began selling Bt cotton in India in 2004, after a U.S. challenge at��the WTO forced India to adopt seed patenting, effectively allowing Monsanto��to monopolize the market. Bt cotton seeds were - and still are - advertised��heavily to illiterate Indian farmers, who have bought the company's promises of high yields and the material wealth they bring.

What the farmers didn't know until it was too late is those seeds require an��expensive regimen of pesticides, and must be fertilized and watered��according to precise timetables. And since these farmers lack irrigation��systems, and must instead depend on not-always-predictable rainfall, it's��incredibly difficult to control the success or failure of any year's crops.��Now it's virtually impossible to buy anything but Monsanto's seed.

Manjusha, the film's protagonist, goes looking for answers after her father��commits suicide.

To pay for seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer, farmers must take out loans,��but most banks refuse to deal with them, so instead they turn to��moneylenders, who charge exorbitant interest rates. Many farmers have��nothing to offer as collateral besides their land. If a crop fails and they��can't pay back the loans, they lose everything.
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