The Ficci-Yes Bank report on farm mechanisation couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. For one, since it suggests waiving of VAT and excise duty on farm machinery, this is the time the Budget exercise has just begun. More important, the study points out that, while the use of new devices in performing key farm operations is vital for doubling agricultural growth from the present 2 per cent, the...

Bt brinjal is a genetically modified version of an eggplant that is injected with a protein that makes it immune to pests Kochi: There’s a new player in the fight against Bt brinjal, a village panchayat in Kerala that is seeking to preserve a traditional variety of eggplant. As part of the plans of the village-level elected legislative body, around 8,000 households in the Mararikulam North gram panchayat in the coastal...

A solution to the pulses and edible oils crisis is entirely within reach.  The state of India’s food security is worsening by the year. The cost of food items is increasing rapidly, making them unaffordable to a majority of the people. Added to these woes is the short supply of pulses and edible oils, which forces the Central government to import them. Pulses play a critical role in the diet of...

In 2010, subject to government approvals, Indian farmers will seed their fields with transgenic brinjals—brinjals with a genetic variant that, courtesy Monsanty-Mahyco Ltd and a clutch of agricultural universities, protect them from insects. But 14 years ago, Polumetla Ananda Kumar successfully planted the first Indian transgenic brinjals in a field in west Delhi. Then he promptly burnt the entire crop to the ground. Kumar, head of the National Plant Biotechnology Centre at...

Non-governmental organisations and individuals have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the report of the Expert Committee on Bt brinjal and reject the recommendation of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for its commercial cultivation. Similar letters written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh and signed by 353 groups/persons, challenged the recommendation of the expert committee and charged it with succumbing to pressures...