It is the improper mode of application, violating the law and regulations, that is responsible for the apparent adverse toxic effects of endosulfan. FROM a scientific perspective, an extremely pertinent question in the endosulfan story is why adverse health effects similar to those seen in the villages of Kasaragod district in Kerala have not been reported from other parts of the country where the pesticide is used in much larger...

Octogenarian Sita Devi was in tears when district magistrate of Gonda, Ram Bahadur, handed her the land ownership title. She was five-year-old when her family was forced into bonded labour by British forest officers posted in Gorakhpur. The family was given a piece of land for planting trees and to grow crop for its survival. They family was shifted to other place after five years for the same job. From...

The initial euphoria over the chance of getting back their land over, clouds of apprehension and confusion now hang over Singur. The farmers whose land was acquired for the Tata Nano project celebrated on May 13 when Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress won the elections. They were glued to their TV sets when the chief minister announced yesterday that she would make good her promise of returning 400 acres to “unwilling” farmers. But...

Food-price inflation in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, may accelerate in the second half as farmers are paying 20 percent more to grow Crops, according to the commission that helps set minimum farm-product prices. “The cost of production is going up very fast,” Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “The labor cost has gone up dramatically in the past one year...

-The Hindu   The government has approved the recommendations of the expert committee formed to suggest alternatives to the pesticides banned by it recently. The government asked Kerala Agricultural University to conduct study on the quality and utility of the alternatives, recommended on an interim basis, and examine whether better alternatives were available. The expert committee recommended ten pesticides in lieu of carbofuran which is used against certain pests in paddy and other...