“European insecticide producers and NGOs backed by them are leading the protest against genetically modified varieties, even as these hold out hope in the context of climate change.” Sharad Joshi
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Seeds are strategic in improving farm yields and the Centre's should ensure that more public institutions and agricultural universities are encouraged to engage in seed research.
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Why turn the clock back? And why turn it back for agriculture when other sectors are powering ahead with private sector research? FE 110210 |
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The Environment Ministry announced its decision to impose a moratorium on the release of the transgenic brinjal hybrid developed by Mahyco, a subsidiary of global seed giant Monsanto.The moratorium will last “till such time independent scientific studies establish, to the satisfaction of both the public and professionals, the safety of the product from the point of view of its long-term impact on human health and environment, including the rich genetic wealth existing in brinjal in our country. |
Making a mention of the insect- resistant cotton and rice developed by the Bangalorebased Metahelix Life Sciences and also the Bt brinjal of publicly funded institutions like the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research at Varanasi, Mr Ramesh said that the regulatory process should not stymie such indigenous scientific efforts. BL 090210
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Pragmatic View: |
Bt cotton was admitted into India after seven years of bureaucratic wrangling and high-pressure lobbying by environmentalists. In less than three years after the introduction of Bt cotton seeds, India became the world's second-largest producer of cotton with improved quality, fibre length and strength.
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However, the environmentalist lobby, egged on by the insecticide producers of Europe, have not learnt their lessons after obstructing the introduction of Bt cotton, causing the country and cotton producers considerable harm. They proceeded to launch an attack on the introduction of the Bt gene, Cry1Ac, in brinjal. |
Since the days of Malthus, agriculture the world over has been able to feed growing populations through deployment of technology. It is a pity that the Government, which has arrogated to itself the monitoring of genetic engineering, is vulnerable to Luddite and obscurantist mindsets. The debate over Bt brinjal-BL- 100210
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| Technology is key for Productivity : |
Even where better technology is available and has been shown to succeed (as in Bt cotton), vested interests — national, international and a combination of the two — are seeking to prevent their adoption. There is only one sensible way to tackle the productivity problem in agriculture. The Government needs to become much more aggressive about new technologies. There is no time to lose because with even more rapid growth in incomes, food prices will be the first to feel the effect. This doesn't mean that new technologies alone will solve the problem. But it does mean that, even if others things are dealt with, such as irrigation, land reform and so on, without the adoption of new technologies, the problem will keep coming back. BL 060210 |
Fall in Pulses production : |
Acreage under pulses has stagnated at 23-24 million hectares for decades and that yields have shown sluggish growth to register 600 kg a hectare at present, rather poor by international standards. India has been importing pulses from early 1980s; but little effort went into promoting production of pulses in a big way. Inadequate or unsuccessful research efforts and consequent failure on pulses production front and lack of breakthrough in seed technology over the last several years. Where have all the research funds gone? |
Rabi food grain crop est. 117mt : |
Rabi foodgrain crop ois estimated at 117 million tonnes (mt) for 2009-10, which will start arriving in the markets from mid-March onwards. The 117 mt output from the rabi (winter-sown) crop — based on the Ministry's ‘Second advance estimates' released here would more than offset the poor kharif harvest of 99.85 mt resulting from the worst-ever South-West monsoon since 1972.
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The turnaround in rabi would mean that the country's total foodgrain production during 2009-10 would be 216.85 mt. Although below the previous year's record 234.47 mt, it is better than the 198.36 mt of 2004-05 and 174.77 mt of 2002-03, which were also bad monsoon years. |
| Food inflation @18% : |
Food inflation rose for three successive weeks, moving closer to 18 per cent for the week ended January 30. Potato prices jumped 40.57 per cent over the last year, while pulses became dearer by 41.24 per cent. PTI 110210 |
| Industrial Growth soars to 16.8% : |
| Industrial growth soared to 16.8 per cent in December 2009 as against a contraction (on low Base) of 0.2 per cent in the same month a year earlier. For the first nine months of this fiscal 10, industry witnessed a growth of 8.6 per cent as compared to just 3.6 per cent in the same period a year ago. |
| Consume less sugar and be Healthy : |
| As sugar prices rise, the Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday offered a solution — consume less sugar, as “no one dies from not eating sugar.” “On the other hand, [by] eating sweet items diabetes increases. So, it is not necessary that everyone consumes sugar,” said Rashtravadi, the NCP mouthpiece, in an editorial.“Doctors say that eating excess sugar and salt is akin to [taking] poison,” said the magazine. KRSR/150210 |
