The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that small seed enterprises are the best way of ensuring the availability and quality of non-hybrid seeds for food and animal feed crops in developing countries.In a newly-published policy guide, FAO cited World Bank data that showed that up to 50 per cent of crop yield increases come from improved seeds, while farmers’ access to quality seeds is a key...

After feeding the country, the enterprising farmers of Punjab now want to try their hands in Ethiopia. The progressive farmers, mainly members of Poscon (Confederation of Potato Seed Farmers), are planning to take 2,000-5,000 hectares farmland on lease in Ethiopia for growing cash crops like oilseeds, pulses, sugarcane and maize. The delegation of the progressive farmers has twice visited Ethiopia on the invitation of Ethiopian government. Speaking to Business Standard, Poscon...

Why women in Punjab villages shy away from offering their super-nutritious panjiri to guests from abroad, and instead offer them chips and coke? And, is there any connection between panjiri and failure of the Punjab farmers to save their own traditional (sustainable) seeds in favour of hybrids or new varieties dished out by PAU or private companies? 'There is a deep connection between the two,' says Arshinder Kaur, India coordinator for international...

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), the pioneer of supercomputing in the country, is now assisting the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to establish a national agricultural bioinformatics grid. The initiative, the first of its kind in the country, will help scientists enhance agricultural productivity and address problems of food security. Under the project, a three-day training-cum-workshop on ‘parallel and high performance computing’ began at C-DAC on Monday, with...

During protests against the WTO (World Trade Organization) meetings in Cancún, Mexico in September 2003, Lee Kyung Hae, a South Korean farmer and La Via Campesina member, martyred himself by plunging a knife into his heart while standing atop the barricades at Kilometer Zero. Around his neck was a sign that read, "WTO Kills Farmers." At that time, activists around the world were rallying under the umbrella of the global justice...