-The Financial Express After private weather forecaster Skymet on Wednesday predicted normal monsoons In India, research firm HSBC says that it will provide a boost to the agricultural sector. Interestingly, Skymet has forecast a a 20% chance of above normal monsoon, and a 5% probability of excess rain in 2018-19. HSBC notes that the agriculture sector is slated to benefit from it, as 70% of the total rainfall is attributable to...

-The Financial Express Pune: The special task force in Maharashtra to tackle agrarian crisis Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavlamban Mission (VNSSM) chairman Kishor Tiwari on Monday blamed the Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta, Germany’s bayer and bayer-owned Monsanto for recent deaths of farmers due to pesticide exposure to the cotton belt of Yavatmal. In a statement issued here, he said that they have been accused of distributing dangerous pesticides without sufficient safety information...

-The Indian Express Makka ki roti aur sarson ka sag is a popular food item in northern India, in particular, Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh where both maize and mustard are widely grown. All vegetarian dishes made in much of northern, eastern and western India are cooked in mustard (sarson) oil. Why, suddenly, has mustard taken centre stage? GM mustard has begun to stir both the scientific and activist lobbies,...

-AsianAge.com Now farmers have started to awaken the nation to the farming crisis with strikes in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Indian civilisation is based on gratitude to our farmers and all beings who contribute to our food — annadata sukhibhava. Our traditional belief is “Uttam-kheti, madhyam-vyapar, neech-naukri”. The combination of the Green Revolution in Punjab imposed in the 1960s and the corporate globalisation “reforms” started in the 1990s have created policies for annadata...

-The Indian Express The opposition’s main contention is that the GM mustard hybrid incorporates three alien genes — barnase, barstar and bar — rendering it inherently unsafe for human and animal health. Fifty years ago, Union Minister for Food and Agriculture Chidambaram Subramaniam took the decision to import 18,000 tonnes of seeds of Lerma Rojo 64A and Sonora 64 wheat from Mexico. The seeds arrived just in time for their planting in...