The month-long `Beej Yatras' in different parts of the country will be the starting point for a year-long `Beej Satyagraha', a ``non-cooperation movement'' against ``colonisation'', including seed patents and the takeover of India's food and agriculture by multinational corporations, the activists said.

March 5 has been specially chosen as it was on this day in 1930 that Gandhiji declared non-cooperation against the British monopoly on salt manufacture. The historic Dandi March was flagged off from Sabarmati Ashram on March 12 to break the salt laws.

More than 250 groups and movements including those by farmers, women and environmentalists will participate in the `Beej Satyagraha', the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology(RFSTE) said here today.

In particular, the movement will call for ``no patents on life'' and the removal of seeds and genetic resources from trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) and a related change in TRIPS during its review in 1999. It will call for removal of food from the free trade regime of WTO by creating a ``bread box'' for food security, just like the United States and European Union have created a ``green box'' and ``blue box'' to protect their agriculture and maintain subsidies, it added.

Describing seeds as the ``vital resource for the survival of life and the priceless gift of nature bred by farmers over the millennia'', the RFSTE said the patents and property rights on seed imposed through the TRIPS agreement of WTO were similar to the draconian salt laws of the British.

The `Beej Satyagraha' would also bring into the spotlight the danger posed by genetically engineered seeds and the `terminator technology', which would force farmers to buy seeds every season instead ofrelying on their own resources.