-Down to Earth In this decade, 231 more crops have been removed from the protection of piracy provided in Section 3 of the Biodiversity Act, bringing the total to 421 The Supreme Court, in a November 22 order, has ordered the Karnataka High Court to continue hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on biopiracy which it had sent to the National Green Tribunal in 2013. Biopiracy refers to the practice of commercially exploiting...
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Debal Deb, agrarian scientist and seed conservationist, interviewed by Rebecca George (TheWire.in)
-TheWire.in * Debal Deb began conserving indigenous varieties of rice in the 1990s after realizing that they were losing cultivation ground to other varieties preferred by the Green Revolution. * In an extended interview with The Wire Science, he explained what makes a crop resilient, why farmers should be considered scientists, and the perils of technological solutionism. * Deb also spoke at length about the problems with the Green Revolution and its troubled...
More »Direct seeding of rice: Punjab’s paddy farmers eye mechanical sowing to save on labour cost -Vishal Joshi
-Hindustan Times DSR ‘tar-wattar’ (good soil moisture), a low-cost mechanical sowing technique to reduce water footprint in the cultivation of water-guzzling rice by 20%, was indigenously developed by scientists of Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University BATHINDA: As farmers are expecting a sharp rise in farm labourers’ demand to charge up to ₹6,000 per acre for paddy sowing this season, direct seeding of rice (DSR), which for the first time comes with an incentive...
More »UN Food Systems Summit marginalizes human rights and disappoints, say experts
-United Nations Human Rights Office of The High Commissioner GENEVA 22 SEPTEMBER 2021: On the eve of the Food Systems Summit, UN human rights experts are deeply concerned that the event will not be a “people’s summit” as promised. They are worried that the Summit will instead leave behind the most marginalized and vulnerable people. According to the three human rights experts, who were involved in the Summit preparation, “The Summit claims...
More »Ajgar lauki, tanpura lauki and sui-dhaaga: How a 64-year-old farmer is preserving desi seeds for posterity -Sachin Tulsa Tripathi
-GaonConnection.com Ram Lotan Kushwaha, a seed conservator from Satna, Madhya Pradesh goes to great lengths to preserve and conserve traditional medicinal herbs and seeds of indigenous vegetables in his farm. The vegetables and seeds also find place in a desi museum he has set up. Satna, Madhya Pradesh: Bottle gourds, in different shapes and sizes, are on display on one wall. Look around and there are other legumes of vegetables arranged neatly,...
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