Eminent scientist M S Swaminathan has said the new National Food Security Act should include a provision for distribution of millets through the public distribution system. This measure will be implemented keeping in mind the possible reductions in yield of rice and wheat due to climate change. Speaking at a climate change symposium during the 98th Indian Science Congress 2011 held at SRM University on Wednesday, Swaminathan elaborated on the...

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat today backed politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai on genetically modified crops, saying his remarks were in line with the party’s views. “What he has said is the understanding of the party. He (SRP) also explained why we are opposed to Bt cotton and Bt brinjal,” Karat told The Telegraph. Pillai told a seminar in Kerala that “it is superstitious to completely oppose” genetically modified seeds, a shift...

Farmers education should be given priority to widen their understanding on nutrients and other scientific means to boost agriculture production, renowned agri-scientist Chandrashekhar Singh has said today. "Only educated farmer could understand the benefits of nutrient foodgrains and will be able to grow them," Chandrashekhar Singh, Head of Banaras Agriculture Research Foundation Society, told reporters here. Singh, who was recently honoured by the President of India for his valuable contribution in the...

Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we...

Krishi Bhavan supports endosulfan companies; Kerala protests THE timing and the message of the conference could not have been more stark. At a time when the endosulfan problem is in the limelight, sparking calls for a nationwide ban on the pesticide, its manufacturers staged a remarkable feat. They held a three-day conference on rural prosperity at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, venue for high-power official meetings, and put across the message that the hazardous...