Three state governments are waging a legal battle against the seed industry over prices of Bt cotton Seeds. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra have cases running in the state courts with the National Seeds Association of India for fixing prices of Bt cotton Seeds. The association questioned the state governments’ authority in fixing prices, saying it would hamper seed research in the private sector. It says only the Union government can...
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Seed bill retake by Jyotika Sood
THE Union agriculture ministry will redraft the seed bill following complaints by MPs, states and farmer groups. Their main grouse is that the bill, which aims to regulate the quality of Seeds, does not monitor their prices, crucial for farmers. The Seed Bill 2010 was approved by the Cabinet in March and was to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha in mid-April. Sources in the ministry said MPs and state government...
More »Buoyant Pepsi to take contract farming to troubled states by Seema Sindhu
Ram Prasad Ghosal, a potato farmer from Bamunpara (Dist Burdwan) in West Bengal, owns 10 acres of land. Just two months earlier, though, his ilk faced a major scare. The region witnessed a bumper potato crop of 9.5 million tonnes — 73 per cent higher than last year’s production. Wholesale prices in Kolkata crashed to Rs 300 a quintal. Retail prices, too, dropped to Rs 6-8 a kg. Farmers were...
More »Not by price alone
The Centre's decision to raise the minimum support price (MSP) sharply for pulses, moderately for coarse cereals and oil Seeds, and not at all for rice and cotton (the nominal hike for rice merely rolls in the bonus offered last year) is right, in the conventional sense. The signal against increasing acreage for rice this kharif is sound, given the huge stocks with the government. The signalling is right, too,...
More »Bt cotton seed firms tell states to end price control by B Krishna Mohan
Governments of cotton growing states have spiked proposals by companies to increase prices for genetically modified (Bt) cotton Seeds. Makers of Bt seed have asked for a rise in the price they could charge for a 40-seed packet of the BG1 variety to Rs 850 (from Rs 650 now) and for the BG2 variety to Rs 1,050 (up from Rs 750), as input and labour costs had gone up by 35...
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