-Economic and Political Weekly The cultivation of geneticallymodified crops, especially food crops, is not just a domestic issue; it has an impact on global food trade as well. Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iimahd.ernet.in) is at the Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM, Ahmedabad. There is no doubt that the application of biotechnology can lead to yield improvement, cost cutting and lower crop losses, besides providing more processable raw materials and designer products. That is why...

-PTI Washington: India-born Mexican scientist Sanjaya Rajaram has been awarded the World Food Prize 2014 for agricultural research that spurred an astonishing increase in world wheat production. The 71-year-old Rajaram, however, played down his contribution and thanked farmers for their "innovative spirit". "It is a collective achievement rather than that of a single person," the scientist told the award ceremony audience at the Iowa State University in America. The award "honours the innovative spirit...

-The Tribune Agbiotechnology is presented in many forms - the most common being that it will solve world hunger. To reinforce this claim, there is an interesting word play at work. Agbiotechnology is referred to as the ‘EverGreen Revolution' or the 'Gene Revolution' but never genetic engineering, which is its correct name. Both EverGreen Revolution and Gene Revolution are deliberately coined terms which attempt to link Agbiotech with the Green Revolution....

-The New Indian Express CHENNAI: Taking out a sharp attack on the anti-GM environmental activists, Professor Dr Shanthu Shantharam of the Iowa State University's Seed Science Centre said that the decision on the usage of GM crops should be left to farmers and not to environmental activists. He was speaking at a seminar on ‘GM Technology - Myth and Reality' organised by the Industrial Economist magazine on Saturday at the CLRI. "Let...

-Deccan Chronicle We are faced with two crises on a planetary scale - climate change and species extinction. Our current modes of production and consumption, starting with the Industrial Revolution and aggravated by the advent of industrial agriculture, have contributed to both. If no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gases, we could experience a catastrophic 4°C increase in temperatures by the end of the century. But climate change is not just...