Mahyco-Monsanto challenges State's move on royalty fee. “In the last one decade, the cost of seeds for several crops has gone up by more than 400 per cent.” The National Seeds Association of India (NSAI) has filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court challenging the State Government order that fixed the maximum sale price (MSP) of Bt cottonseed at last year's levels, even as several farmers' organisations and non-governmental...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Anti- farmer’ Seeds Bill has the Left up in arms against govt
The six-year-old Seeds Bill could be the next headache for the UPA government in Parliament. As the government plans to introduce the Bill in the Rajya Sabha this week, the Opposition, especially the Left parties, and several farmers’ organisations have ganged up against some of its provisions. The Left is also in touch with other political parties to put pressure on the government to remove certain “ antifarmer” clauses in the Bill. The...
More »Not as wheatful as expected by Jyotika Sood
Farmers in Punjab reported low wheat yield this year. Even though the state agriculture machinery sold them certified seeds, not all seeds germinated, several farmers from Ferozepur district told Down To Earth (dte). They said the seeds were spurious. On March 17 and 18, Sunil Jakhar, Congress mla from Abohar block in Ferozepur, raised questions to the state’s agriculture minister in the legislative assembly. Jakhar alleged the government sold ordinary seeds...
More »A Sieve Of A Scheme? by Chandrani Banerjee
* Documentary evidence gathered by the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Rajasthan points to large-scale embezzlement in nrega projects * Panchayats often furnish fake bills and fictitious companies have been floated to divert funds * Hundreds of crores are lost to this sort of leakage * The CAG, too, has pointed out large-scale irregularities and corruption in the implementation of NREGA projects...
More »Just seven states pay Rs100 under NREGA by Ruhi Tewari
Only seven states pay average wages of Rs100 or more per day to workers under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s flagship rural welfare programme, despite the Congress party, which heads the government, promising to make Rs100 every worker’s entitlement last year. The UPA had fixed the daily wage of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)—which promises at least 100 days of work annually to one...
More »