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Small, competitive and resilient How small-scale producers contribute to food security
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 8th, 2012 in Reports/StudiesSmall, competitive and resilient How small-scale producers contribute to food security
Food insecurity threatens almost one billion people. At least 70 percent of these very poor live in rural areas in developing countries. Most of them are engaged with farming activities. Scientists estimate that the world’s population will grow to 9.1 billion by 2050. Since natural resources are already dangerously degraded, fossil fuels are becoming scarce, and climate change has become an impending reality, this poses a serious challenge. To nourish the growing population and meet the challenges of climate change, it is necessary that the unused potential of small-scale producers – who already today provide an impressive 70 percent of the world’s food – is unleashed. They have the right and capability to be part of the solution.
Hivos calls for a serious reorientation of government, research and civil society policies towards focusing on small-scale producers, thereby proposing to drastically increase investment – funds, research, and time – in their organisation, competiveness and resilience.
Monsanto maize seeds hit roadblock in Gujarat
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 8th, 2012 in Articleshttp://www.business-standard.
| Monsanto maize seeds hit roadblock in Guj |
| BS Reporter / Mumbai/ Ahmedabad Apr 27, 2012, 00:24 IST |
The Gujarat Government has decided to stop procuring double-cross hybrid maize seed made by seed major Monsanto, which were distributed among the farmers in the tribal areas of the state under the tribal a development scheme.
The seeds sold under the brand name ‘prabal’ were being distributed to farmers in the tribal regions under the Sunshine Project, which falls under the Vanbandhu Kalyan Yogna, since 2008. It is estimated that the seeds were distributed among half a million farmers by the Tribal Development Department.
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“The decision was taken during the Cabinet meeting of the state government held yesterday,” Gujarat agriculture minister Dilip Sanghani told Business Standard.
“We have decided not to procure Monsanto seeds which were distributed among the farmers of tribal area. Instead, the farmers would be asked to buy government approved seeds of their own choice for which the government would provide financial support,” Sanghani said.
This has been done to break the monopoly of Monsanto company in the state, he added.
The state government’s decision follows several representation by the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and some MLAs from the tribal areas. In last session of state assembly in March, Congress MLAs including deputy leader of Congress in the house Mohansinh Rathava and senior MLA Bachubhai Kishori had demanded ban on maize seeds of Monsanto, claiming that there were ill-effects of Monsanto’s maize seeds which were being distributed by the state government in tribal areas.
Also, during the assembly session last month Minister for Tribal Development Mangu Patel had said that the government had sought opinion of Anand and Navsari agriculture universities on the issue side, effects of using Monsanto’s maize seeds, before taking further action.
BKS Gujarat president Magan Patel said that they have demanded complete ban on all seed of Monsanto in Gujarat.
“We have demanded that no seed of Monsanto be sold in Gujarat. Also, we have asked the government to stop any kind of field trial on genetically modified food crops being done in couple of agriculture universities of the Gujarat,” Patel said.
“We have received no such information from Government of Gujarat,” Monsanto spokesperson said, adding, ”Monsanto’s Prabal maize hybrid seeds have been thoroughly tested in the state at the Anand Agriculture University, Anand for more than three years and has consistently performed year on year, both in the university and on the fields of the four lakh maize farmers who continue to plant the seeds in both rainfed and irrigated conditions over the last four years.”
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Guj Govt changes policy on seed purchase from MNC
PTI | 11:04 PM,Apr 26,2012
Ahmedabad, Apr 26 (PTI) Gujarat government has decided not to buy seeds directly from the seed major Monsanto for distribution among farmers from the tribal region following protest by Bharitya Kisan Sangh and some NGOs. The State government would purchase hybrid maize seeds, named `prabal’ from the multinational company Monsanto and distribute it to tribal farmers at subsidised rates. “We have decided to change our scheme. Earlier, we used to purchase the seeds directly from the company and distribute it among tribal farmers. Now we have decided that we will provide subsidy to tribal farmers for maize seeds purchased by them from anywhere,” state agriculture minister Dilip Sanghani said. “The state government has also taken a policy decision that they would not purchase any seeds directly from any company and provide it to farmers. But instead give subsidies to farmers for the seeds they will purchase from the market,” Sanghani further said. After the Gujarat government started the policy of purchasing seeds from the company in 2008, few other states had also followed similar scheme. Bharitya Kisan Sangh (BKS) today welcomed the decision of the government to not to purchase seeds directly from any company, and also demanded that Monsanto should be banned from the state and all field trials of genetically modified crop of all the multinational companies should be stopped in the state. (MORE) PTI PD ABC
Cotton seed production and Child Labor: Various reports
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 8th, 2012 in Reports/StudiesReport on Gujarat Visit Oct 2011
Children_Migrating_for_work_from_Dungarpur_District_to_Gujarat_by_Neera_Burra
ChildLabourInProductionOfCottonSeedsOnMonsantoPlots
Child labour and MNCs in cotton seed production
Child_Labour_in_Cottonseed_Production_by_Ashok_Khandelwal
child labor in hybrid cotton seed production in AP 2004
Several reports on using child labor in hybrid cotton seed production. National Child Rights Protection Commission has taken note of it and ordered an enquiry. the report submitted by them identifies the problem and suggests remedial measures. But no major improvement in the situation
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/247091/bt-cotton-thrives-cost-child.html
“Cross-pollination for production of Bt cotton seed is manual work and needs a large labour supply. As child labour is cheap, more children are brought into this business,” said Dr Bupinder Zutshi, assistant professor, centre for the study of regional development, JNU, who led the study.
Bt cotton is genetically modified variety of cotton, meant to increase yield of cotton. But the seed yielded by the crop cannot be used for sowing in the next season. The option that the farmers have is to either buy seed from the manufacturing company, or go for manual cross-pollination in which male flower is rubbed against female flower for production of cotton.
“The government has put ceiling on sale of seeds and the farmers go for manual cross-pollination. As the farmers do not earn enough profit from Bt cotton cultivation, they go for child labour,” said Dr Zutshi.
About 33 per cent farmers surveyed in the study had taken loans with the average outstanding amount per farmer at Rs 15,890.
The report mentions that in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, the worst states in the cultivation season of 2009-10, around 3,81,500 children below the age of 18 years were found engaged as labourers in cotton seed farms.
The authors found that profits earned from turning cotton into the final product is 850 per cent. The share of child labour in this is merely 0.8 per cent. For cotton seed production, the corresponding figures are 550 per cent and 2.5 per cent.
The report also questions the myth that children with ‘nimble fingers’ can better perform the delicate task of cross-pollination in Bt cotton seed cultivation.
According to the report, owing to the pressure by civil society regarding child labour Bt cotton seed production has relocated to impoverished and inaccessible areas to make use of cheap tribal labour, migrant labour and trafficked children from adjacent areas.
“Nearby tribal areas of Rajasthan like Dungarpur and Udaipur send children as contract labourers,” said Dr Zutshi.
GM Free Coalition urges MoEF to bar any move by the GEAC to promote field trials in various States which objected
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 8th, 2012 in MemorandumsCoalition for a GM-Free India
New Delhi, 7th May 2012
To,
Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan
The H’ble Minister, MoSEF (Independent Charge)
Government of India.
SUBJECT: YOUR STATEMENT IN PARLIAMENT ON 27 MARCH 2012: ‘DELAY IN NOCS FOR GM CROPS TRIALS’
Dear Madam Minister,
Greetings from the Coalition for GM-Free India.
In your statement in the Rajya Sabha on 27 March 2012, you stated that “the GEAC has been approached by the Seed Industries, Ministry of Agriculture and Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) to reconsider its decision on the need of NOC from the State Government prior to the conduct of GM crop field trial.” Consequently, the GEAC has apparently decided to make presentations to State governments to withdraw their bans on field trials1.
We must point out that in the present circumstances where these GMOs remain untested, this action to promote open field trials by the GEAC if carried out, would be contrary to its mandate under the EPA and consequently illegal. It forsakes the absolute requirement of independence and objectivity in a regulator, as required by law, to instead become a lobbying body to advance the cause of the biotech Industry. Furthermore, to lobby formally at the behest of the seed industry as explicitly admitted in your statement would then prove the serious charge of a blatant conflict of interest in your Regulator and particularly in the present climate of corruption may well raise serious questions.
Should such corporate influence in the decision making process lead in the future to farmers’ losses and even suicides, the consequences can be imagined. After a decade of escalating indebtedness and suicides, and the deliberate elimination of low priced non Bt seeds from the market, Bt cotton has been declared definitely unfit in rain-fed Vidharba by the Maharashtra Ministry of Agriculture. How was Bt cotton approved for rain-fed regions by the Regulators? Responsibility must be fixed for the extreme farmer distress that has followed and the record number of farmer suicides in Vidharba, because the link with Bt cotton is undeniable. This is stated and emphasised given the background that the only Biosafety Dossier prepared till date is of Bt brinjal and that has been comprehensively critiqued in several of its aspects and found to be fraudulent. The essential risk assessment protocols and key testing were not done, but were only claimed to have been done. As a result, open field trials of all crops are now clearly unsafe and contravene the EPA. In addition, surely you must also consider the reasons for the Bt brinjal moratorium and their implications for bio-safety, including the need for stringent, independent testing.
On what basis therefore, is the GEAC deciding to woo State Governments to their point of view? Given their own culpability in approving unsafe open field trials, which are also routinely in breach of biosafety rules, lacking elementary precaution leave alone rigour and oversight, it is ironic that the reasons being put forward for such an approach to State governments is their “lack of awareness on highly technical issues associated with biotechnology and biosafety measures.” Apart from being surprisingly condescending, it has to be said that on the contrary, that the States that have thus far imposed bans have done so acknowledging the uncertainties of GE technology and arising directly from this uncertainty, they thus also recognise the pivotal importance of the precautionary principle enshrined in India’s constitution and upheld in law. There is no gainsaying the fact that GMOs are a powerful, novel and unproven technology, which was commercialised a mere 20 years ago and whose impacts are irreversible. State governments are demonstrating a remarkable acuity of judgment and farsightedness in order to protect their crops and still rich seed diversity in the national interest, in marked contrast to the breach of these principles and the caution and precaution that are obligatory requirements in the apex Regulator.
With regard to the RCGM, it has to be said that this regulatory body that is essentially instructed by the DBT (in the Ministry of Science and Technology) has exhibited an appalling mind-set over the years as a blatant vendor of GM crops and has gone so far as to foster and openly promote PPP (public-private- partnerships) between our public sector agri institutions (supported by the ICAR), and the biotech Industry. By agreeing to such agreements, the former have comprehensively abandoned their mandate to India’s farmers. Their recommendation to cancel the requirement for NOCs is a serious error of judgment and self-revealing. Given that agriculture is a State subject, the decision to require NOCs by the former MoEF Shri Jairam Ramesh was in reality a formality, but a well judged and directed instruction to the GEAC. We would urge you to uphold this principle, which will send the right message of support from the Centre to State governments in their exemplary action on barring field trials.
We therefore, respectfully urge you to bar any move by the GEAC to promote field trials in various States, by mounting what would be tantamount to a road-show on behalf of Monsanto and the Industry. In the year that India is hosting the CBD, this would be a comprehensively wrong message to send out. On the other hand, we further request that the GEAC in a principled initiative halts all field trials given the current situation where a host of bio-safety issues remain unresolved.
With best wishes
Yours faithfully
Sridhar Radhakrishnan
Convener,
Coalition for a GM-Free India
email : indiagmfree@gmail.com
Ph : 09995358205
CC:
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Ms Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, National Advisory Council, New Delhi
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Sri Basudeb Acharya MP, Chairperson, Parliamentary Standing Committee, Agriculture
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Sri M F Farooqui, Chairman, GEAC
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Prof M S Swaminathan ( Special Invitee in GEAC as per Supreme Court Order)
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Prof Pushpa M Bharghava ( Special Invitee in GEAC as per Supreme Court Order )
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Chief Ministers of all States.
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Agriculture Ministers of all States
Coalition for a GM-Free India is a broad national network of organizations, scientists, farmer unions and consumer groups and individuals committed to keep the food and farms in India free of Genetically Modified Organisms.
Coalition for a GM-free India
A-124/6, First Floor, Katwaria Sarai, New Delhi 110 016,
Phone/Fax: 011-26517814
MoRD report on DRDA recommends abolition of DRDA
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 7th, 2012 in Reports/StudiesA committee set up by Ministry of Rural Development to review the functioning of DRDA (District Rural Development Agency) has recommended abolishing the DRDA.
http://rural.nic.in/sites/downloads/latest/DRDA_FinalD30042012.pdf
Author(s): Dinsa Sachan
The air samples were taken from atmospheric monitoring station in Tasmania (Courtesy: Dr David Etheridge)NITROUS oxide is a potent greenhouse gas—it is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. Though it reaches the environment through different sources like sewage treatment, livestock, vehicles and industries, use of fertilisers in agriculture is its biggest contributor. For example, India which is predominantly an agricultural country is the second largest producer and consumer of nitrogen fertilisers in the world and the third largest emitter of nitrous oxide.
Microbes produce nitrous oxide from nitrogen fertilisers through two processes of nitrogen cycle: nitrification and denitrification. They convert nitrogen fertiliser applied to farm fields into nitrates. These nitrates are then utilised by plants. Denitrification converts nitrates into atmospheric nitrogen. Excessive fertiliser use accelerates the rate of the processes, resulting in more nitrous oxide.
While scientists have attempted to measure the levels of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere mathematically, based on assumptions, empirical estimates are not available. Now scientists at the University of California in the US have filled this gap.
Using isotopic techniques they have ascertained agriculture’s contribution to nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the years. For the study, they obtained air samples from compacted Antarctic ice, called firn air, dating between 1940 and 2005 and from an atmospheric monitoring station at Cape Grim in Tasmania which has archived air samples since 1978. The team then studied the percentage of different isotopes of nitrogen in the air samples. Isotopes are different forms of a chemical and nitrogen has two major isotopes N-14 and N-15.
“In the presence of fertilisers, nitrous oxide produced has more N-14 relative to N-15. Our data shows that over time the atmosphere is becoming enriched with N-14,” says Kristie Boering, co-author of the study. Previous studies have shown that the contribution of nitrification to global microbial nitrous oxide production has increased from 13.5 per cent in 1750 to 231.3 per cent in 2005. “As more nitrous oxides and its isotopes measurements are made in more regions we can use this data to monitor, check, and verify nitrous oxide emissions,” she adds.
The researchers in their study have also suggested that farmers should not use fertilisers during rainy season because microbes in wet soil can fire away loads of nitrous oxide. But is it feasible for countries like India?
B S Dwivedi, head of division of soil sciences and agricultural chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, says, “Not using fertilisers during rain is not feasible for staples like rice which are grown in this season.”
Alternative practices
Even though fertiliser use cannot be stopped completely, there are alternatives to reduce nitrous oxide emissions without losing crop productivity. Use of manure could be one option, but Dwivedi thinks it is only useful for low-yielding crops like spices.
Nitrification inhibitors are another option. Inhibitors are chemicals that slow down the process of nitrification and are being used in several parts of the world. However, Lars Bakken, group leader with the Nitrogen Group at the University of Life Sciences in Norway, says, “This is controversial for two reasons. One, you need to apply ‘poison’ to solve an environmental problem. Second, it does not work so well. Nitrification is only partly and transiently inhibited.”
O P Rupela, principal scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in Hyderabad, says, “Much of the crop nutrient needs can be met through on-farm production of plant biomass.”
S R Gopikrishna of non-profit Greenpeace says ecological fertilisation could be the way out. “By including legume crops (which can fix atmospheric nitrogen) in the cropping system, emissions can be reduced.”
Suman Sahai, convenor of non-profit Gene Campaign that rallies for food and livelihood security, says that instead of focussing on reducing emissions from agriculture it would be better to reduce those from vehicles and industry.
Farmer suicides declining steadily: Govt
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 7th, 2012 in Farmers Suicideshttp://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/farmer-suicides-declining-steadily-govt_700479.html
New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) There has been a steady decline in suicides by farmers on account of agrarian reasons in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere because of several initiatives by the government, Parliament was informed today. A total of 123 farmers took their lives due to agrarian causes in 2011 till July end in Maharashtra, as against 454 in 2010, Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. A total of 550 farmers had taken the extreme steps in the Western state in 2009. Similarly, 109 farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh till February-end in the 2011-12 fiscal, as against 187 in 2010 and 299 in 2009, the minister said. In Karnataka, 77 cultivators had committed suicide till August in 2010-11 fiscal, vis-a-vis 138 in 2009-10 and 156 in 2008-9, the minister said. Rawat said the causes of suicide by farmers as reported by the state governments have been because of indebtedness, crop failure, drought, socio-economic and personal. He attributed decline in cases of farmers suicide to progressive measures taken by the government. On steps to correct the situation in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), he said the Approach paper to the plan has emphasised on faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth by expansion of farm income, creation of non-farm income opportunities and improvement in productivity of rainfed agriculture. Accordingly, steps are being taken to increase public investment in agriculture sector, improving technology, rural infrastructure and delivery of credit, he added. Rawat said other initiatives include implementation of Rehabilitation Package covering 31 districts in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra under which an amount of Rs 19,998.85 crore has been released till September 30, 2011.
Measuring the contribution of Bt cotton to India’s cotton yields leap: IFPRI Report
0 Comments Published by Ramoo May 5th, 2012 in Reports/StudiesDownload the latest report from IFPRI on decade of Bt cotton in India
http://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp01170.pdfhttp://www.ifpri.org/sites/default/files/publications/ifpridp01170.pdf