-The Hindu Business Line AP, Kerala, Punjab, TN, Rajasthan, M.P. and Chhattisgarh see a dip in consumption After witnessing a slump in 2018-19, pesticide consumption registered a marginal growth in 2019-20. However, more States are reporting a decline in usage of agrochemicals on rising awareness of the harmful effects among both producers and consumers. States such as Punjab, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Kerala reported a decline in usage of technical...
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India ignores UN advice to register biopesticides against locusts, still uses toxic chemicals -Nikhil Eapen
-CaravanMagazine.in As swarms of desert locusts descended upon India this year, toxic insecticides were sprayed over two lakh hectares of land to contain their spread. But the measure could have serious environmental and health consequences. India’s Locust Warning Organization, or LWO, a body under the Ministry of Agriculture, uses fifteen different formulations of eight insecticides for controlling their spread. Five of these insecticides are banned, restricted or withdrawn in one or...
More »Centre's 'Surplus' Rice to Ethanol Move Goes Back to a March Meeting Chaired by Modi -Kabir Agarwal
-TheWire.in The decision, which has been severely criticised as it comes in the wake of rising hunger in the country, was defended by the government as being needed to manufacture alcohol-based hand sanitisers. New Delhi: A high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3, 2020 all but cleared the way for the government’s much-criticised decision to convert ‘surplus’ rice to ethanol, information obtained by The Wire via the Right...
More »Civil society praises Centre’s draft order banning 27 pesticides -Vineet Kumar
-Down to Earth The pesticides in question continue to be used in India, but are already banned, restricted or withdrawn in other countries Several experts underscored the ill effects of using chemicals excessively in agriculture and stressed on ecologically sound alternatives while backing a recent government draft order to prohibit a bunch of pesticides. Civil society members, citing risks, threats and damage from 27 pesticides, came out in support of a May 14,...
More »Can raising the approved labour budget from 280.76 crore person-days to 306.6 crore person-days help the unskilled returnee migrants who prefer MGNREGA to Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan?
Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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