Driven by trade interest, EU is pushing Endosulfan for POP listing Elimination of Endosulfan is expected to severely impact pollination and India’s farming India is today the second largest producer of horticulture crops (fruits at vegetables) and annually produces over 215 million mt (2008-09 figures source Ministry of Agriculture). This is almost as much as India’s total food grain production of 235 million mt (2008-09 figures source Ministry. of Agriculture). India’s export...

The Rangarajan Committee report is another move away from the vision of a comprehensive food security act. Undernutrition levels in India are among the highest in the world, and the problem cannot be addressed by just spending another Rs 10,000 crores or so on the Public Distribution System . The need of the hour is a comprehensive food security act that integrates a wide range of interventions, including maternity entitlements,...

There is more trouble in store for South Korean steel maker Posco’s Orissa project. Shoreline surveys have found the state’s coastline to be highly erosive. Worse still, 50%, that is 4.8 km of the 9.3 km coastline along the proposed captive port site at Jatadhari is eroding. This is likely to put a spanner in the works for the South Korean company, which has been insistent on a separate captive...

Crop failure, debts, and personal reasons behind deaths Seven farmers have committed suicide in Madhya Pradesh in less than a month. Kanhaiya Patel (30) of Hata village in Damoh district committed suicide on Wednesday taking the total to seven. He had taken an acre of land on lease and had a debt of Rs.20,000. After his entire arhar (pulses) crop failed, the landowner is reported to have said that if any compensation...

‘Linking the question to annihilation of caste is an important research agenda' ‘Dalits' position relative to dominant castes has not improved significantly' Participants at a national seminar on ‘Dalit households in village economies,' which began here on Friday, affirmed that a lasting solution to India's “agrarian question” — characterised by extreme inequalities in the distribution of land — was inseparably linked to the widespread discrimination of Dalits. Speaking at the inaugural session of...