The State government has set up a committee to suggest alternatives to the pesticides banned by it on Saturday and draw up revised crop-management packages. The committee consists of the Director of Agriculture; the heads of the Department of Extension and the Department of Research of Kerala Agricultural University; the Additional Director (Co-production) of Agriculture Department; and the Chairman of the State Biodiversity Board. It has been asked to submit the...

Blame the poor enforcement of the Integrated Pest Management policy for the toxins in your salad Here is a scary story about pesticides from an enterprising farmer. Subramaniam Kannaiyan — from Thalavady village in Erode, Tamil Nadu — blogs about his experiences with pesticides with respect to a single vegetable, cabbage. Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land are cultivating cabbages on about 3,000 acres here. According to...

The lush green Indian state of Kerala, advertised in travel brochures as "God’s Own Country", is at the center of a continuing battle in the country to secure an early ban on the use of the pesticide endosulfan. The Kerala government and activists say the pesticide has caused 4,000 victims in the state, through cancer, crippled limbs and babies born with deformities; 496 related deaths have been officially recorded. No scientist,...

“Declare State GM organisms-free on the lines of M.P., Bihar” Farmer groups here on Sunday demanded that Rajasthan be declared a genetically modified (GM) organisms-free State on the lines of Madhya Pradesh, which has recently decided to prohibit any environmental release, including field trials, of GM seeds and crops in view of their safety and impact on human beings and environment still being in doubt. Madhya Pradesh is the second State in...

The Union Agriculture Ministry has nominated scientists belonging to the ICAR and state agricultural universities as resource-persons in 70 districts of eastern India in an attempt to give a fillip to the Centre's ambitious programme of extending the benefits of green revolution to the region. With paddy and rice production in Punjab and Haryana showing signs of plateauing, the government has been forced to turn its gaze towards the eastern states...