एक जमाने से बाजरा गरीबों की सेहत का रखवाला माना जाता रहा है और अब जर्नल ऑव न्यूट्रीशन में प्रकाशित एक अध्ययन से इस बात की पुष्टी हुई है कि बाजरे की कई नई किस्मों में आयरन की मात्रा कई गुना बढ़ायी जा सकती है। मान्यता रही है कि बाजरे में अन्य अनाजों की तुलना में आयरन की मात्रा 10 फीसद ज्यादा होती है और आयरन की कमी से ग्रस्त...

Sesikaran says Bt crop’s long-term effect on health can be studied only if it’s approved for commercial production Concerns raised by agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan, cited by the government as among the reasons to put a halt to the release of Bt brinjal, will be impossible to address, according to the head of a state-run laboratory. Swaminathan, 84, credited with the success of the green revolution of the 1960s that made India...

The Central Statistical Organisation estimate of overall GDP being likely to grow at 7.2 per cent this year has brought back the confidence of the industry and policymakers that the economy has truly turned the corner. But the growth of the farm sector is almost flat (-0.2 per cent), though this too is a pleasant surprise given that it was exposed to the worst drought since 1972. The real worry...

The agriculture ministry’s revised farm output projections for this year, indicating just about a 7.5 per cent downturn in foodgrain production despite the worst drought in recent years, lend themselves to some significant inferences. For one, the performance of the crops has turned out to be far better than what was feared. The earlier projections, released in November last, had put the likely crop loss at over 21 million tonnes,...

While the jury is still out on whether Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh did the right thing by putting a moratorium on the use of Bt brinjal, or whether he simply played to the gallery by only taking into account the concerns of the environmentalists, policy-makers need to ponder over some other implications. The introduction of Bt cotton, for instance, led to production more than doubling between 2002-03 and 2007-08, from...