-The Hindustan Times Misunderstandings about the World Trade Organization (WTO) are pervasive. The media coverage of the recent WTO meetings at Bali has added to the confusion. The bone of contention was the government procurement of the food grains in India under the National Food Security Act. The final outcome is a stopgap arrangement that has bought the Indian government some time; most importantly, it does not have to undertake any...
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Rice and shine -Dnyanesh Jathar
-The Week A revolutionary farming system is working wonders in Nalanda district Nalanda: If not for an agricultural technique known as SRI (system of rice intensification), Sumant Kumar of Darveshpura in Bihar's Nalanda district would have remained a faceless farmer. In 2012, with the help of the state agriculture department, he tried out SRI on an acre that usually bore only modest yields. It worked, and Sumant got a bumper harvest. An...
More »Mumbai greenlights GM field trials -Jaideep Hardikar
-The Telegraph Nagpur: The Maharashtra government has given a slew of private companies permission to conduct field trials of genetically modified crops at state agriculture universities' farms, rejecting its dissenting agriculture minister's suggestion for a public debate first. Before this, no Indian state had allowed field trials of GM crops since October last year, when a Supreme Court-appointed expert panel recommended a 10-year moratorium on such trials - though the court has...
More »GM Crops-What's all the fuss about -Nikhil Inamdar
-The Business Standard A quick recap of the intensely fractured debate on GM crops and what the pro & anti arguments are. After nearly a decade of opposition, Environment Minister Veerappa Moily is finally expected to rule in favour of the contentious GM or genetically modified food crops in India. The Economic Times reports that this will "pave the way for the government to submit an affidavit in the Supreme Court agreeing...
More »Nashik farmers halt biz as onion prices drop to Rs 9.5 -Nanda Kasabe
-The Indian Express Pune: Angry farmers in Pimpalgaon Baswant, the biggest onion trading market in Nashik after Lasalgaon, brought business to a complete halt on Monday after average wholesale prices fell to R950 per quintal. Last week, farmers had threatened to disrupt markets if prices fell below the R1,000-per quintal mark. Farmers blocked the Mumbai-Agra highway in the morning, halting traffic for the entire day. Their demands are removal of the minimum export...
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