Even as the highest ever harvest of wheat and rice is expected this year, callous administration is leading to rice literally going up in smoke in the Punjab. Tens of thousands of tons of rice stocked for the last five years in the open have now caught fire at a Punjab Agro storage area in Khamano, a large procurement market.   An incensed Supreme Court had in 2010 said if the government...

The outcome of Stockholm Convention to ban endosulfan capping a long-drawn campaign against the pesticide on health grounds may have brought cheers to the opponents but the domestic industry is crying foul suspecting an European link aiming to capture the Indian market. India and a few other developing countries extracted several exemptions, including a phase out period of 11 years to ban production and use of the toxic pesticide at the...

The lush green Indian state of Kerala, advertised in travel brochures as "God’s Own Country", is at the center of a continuing battle in the country to secure an early ban on the use of the pesticide endosulfan. The Kerala government and activists say the pesticide has caused 4,000 victims in the state, through cancer, crippled limbs and babies born with deformities; 496 related deaths have been officially recorded. No scientist,...

The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) expected to meet on Monday is expected to take a view on an agriculture ministry proposal to export wheat and rice. The proposal is not backed by the food ministry, which wants to take into consideration the interest of consumers, and its own compulsions under the proposed food security bill, before moving on exports under an open general licence. Officials said the food ministry is...

Exemption for its application against 44 pests in 22 crops The decision will not be binding on India unless specifically ratified by it Exemptions will be available for five years, extendable for another five years The Conference of Parties to the Stockholm Convention in Geneva on Friday approved the recommendation for elimination of production and use of Endosulfan and its isomers worldwide, subject to certain exemptions. The decision will not be binding on India...