Blazing Brinjal

Brinjal is very common vegetable fruit in India.India is the second largest Brinjal producing country in the world. Now the Brinjal is blazing topic in India caused by Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) Brinjal which was developed by Mahyco Monsanto Biotech. (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company & Monsanto, USA). Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) of India accepted for commercial use of BT Brinjal- the country’s first genetically modified (GM) food crop. The GEAC was set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to regulate research, testing and commercial release of GM crops, foods and organisms. However, the government could not taken decision without more consultation with stakeholders.
In the meantime lot of public groups, Environmental activists, scientists, and farmers are protesting against BT Brinjal. The Environment and Forest minister Jairam Ramesh is touring seven cities—Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Nagpur and Chandigarh—and holding public discussions with farmers, activists and scientists on their comfort with Bt brinjal.

The protesters are claiming that: BT brinjal is a threat to plant biodiversity, flaws in the data on the gene inserted into the brinjal, no long-term toxicity and cancer-safety tests were done which leads to kidney and liver damage. Farm workers are suffering with allergies including rashes, itches, and irritations while working in GM crop fields. Cattle health may get harm and negative impact on its milk production.

Supporters are impressing that: BT Brinjal will help to tackle the pest in an environment-friendly manner and increase yields and farm income. BT Brinjal has been tested in full compliance with the guidelines and directives of the regulatory authorities to ensure its safety. It has the same nutritional value and is compositionally identical to non BT brinjal, except for the additional BT protein which is specific in its action against the Pest.

I am not against to the technology but we already have more than 200 varieties of brinjal, there is no dearth of brinjal in India. Indians have been eating so many conventional varities of Brinjal for centuries which contains rich health & nutrition values. We can develop new varities by hybridization and natural selection, what is the need of introduction of BT Brinjal. They are mentioning BT Brinjal contains same nutrional values as non BT, so there is no need of Sense of Urgency on BT Brinjal at this point of time.

The GM companies should focus their R&Ds on the crops like...

Ethanol based Transgenic Sugarcane and sugar beet crops have to be developed for support Biofules instead of fossil fuels. Genetically Engineered Tobacco plants are required for medical use. Modified Subabul, Bamboo plants are required more tonnage for paper production.
Please share your ideas on GM crops: farmersindia Email

Are farmers not eligible for Padma awards?

Yes, 2010 Padma awards committee ignored the farmers. The committee considered the citizens from only Art, Literature, Education, Sports, Medicine, Science and Engineering, Trade and Industry…Click for 2010 awards with discipline They did not recognize the farming & rural community related fields though farming community comprises up to 70 % of Indian population living in rural. I am not under estimating the dignitaries who are nominated, but requesting to update the selection criteria by including agriculture and rural related disciplines also. Film actors, dancers, cricketers, businessmen and others are important but let us give importance to farmers also.

If the committee really want support the farmers, they can consider the scientist from agriculture universities,Journalists in rural and agriculture disciplines,rural business entrepreneurs, rural innovators, Model farmers, individuals who are working for farmers’ development and so on. These distinguished awards encourage them and influence others to strive for excellence. How ever... my beloved humble Indian farmers have abundance of self esteem, they won’t plead and lobby for awards.
General Info: Republic day has been the occasion for India to honor its citizens who contributed for nation. Padma Awards were instituted in the year 1954.The award is given in three categories, namely, Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.Padma Shri is awarded for ‘distinguished service’Padma Bhushan for ‘distinguished service of a high order’; and Padma Vibhushan for ‘exceptional and distinguished service’. The Awards Committee submits the recommendations to the Prime Minister and the President for their approval.

Urban-Rural Disparities

Mahatma Gandhi dreamt about GRAM SWARAJ that every village should be self reliance since he believed villages are backbone of India. He started the PANCHYATHRAJ as a manifestation which was reinstated to a political system and finally established as a Department in government. Still most of the villages are pathetic and unable to satisfy the basic amenities (Water, housing, Medical facilities, Education, Roads, unemployment…) when you compare with towns and cities (comfortable life, paved roads, stylish buildings, super specialty hospitals, hybrid cars, white collar jobs, revolutionary technologies, big malls, multiplex..). Our father of Nation want to fortify the India by reinforce the rural but we have started from other end (towns and cities).Shall we assume that the government and policy makers are failed to respect the fundamental right of equality for all citizens irrespective of rural or urban? Have the Economic reforms bypassed the rural India? I can say... YES, the following information which gives us evidence.

India has 640,000 villages approximately and 70% of the population lives in villages. According our recent census, per capita consumption expenditure in rural is RS.14.50 per day and urban Rs.21.60 per day. India poverty headcount ratio is 37.2 per cent of the population — with the rural area poverty at 41.8 per cent and urban area poverty at 25.7 per cent. Three-quarters of urban households living in well constructed houses, compared to only about a quarter in rural areas. Less than One-quarter of the rural population has access to tap water while the corresponding proportion in cities is about three-fourth. 80 percent of rural population doesn’t have sanitary & hygiene facilities where as 30 percent urban people don’t have such. The rural dwellers have to travel miles together for primary care physician and think how difficult to get emergency care and maternity troubles. I can explain a lot like electricity, telephone connections, transportation, less investment in rural areas, banking and credit facilities… and so on. Not only opportunities, rural areas are losing their manpower which is migrating to urban areas as labor due to heavy investments in urban and metros.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005
is helping the distressed poor lives in rural areas. According to this scheme the government will give 100 days wage employment in rural areas by carry out village development works. We need a common rural development policy irrespective of states which needs to improve the villages and the achieve the Mahatma’s SAMPURNA GRAMA SWARAJ.
Please send your suggestions to: farmersindia

Genetically Modified Crops

In the controversy of BT Brinjal in India, I would like to share my opinion about GM Crops:
What is GM?
GM techniques are the direct manipulation of the genetic makeup of organisms for human or animal consumption using the latest molecular biology techniques. Combining genes from different organisms is known as recombinant DNA technology and the resulting organism is said to be "Genetically Modified," "Genetically engineered," or "Transgenic."
Importance of GM:
Today‘s world population is 6.8 billions and by 2050 it’s going to be 9.5 billions upward. In 40 years the population will be increased by 40%, our natural resources are shrinking and many regions of the world will be lack of food and nutritional security. The answer for the challenges is to increase the cultivation with more yields and nutritional values. Bio-technology brought revolutionary changes in crop production and management techniques by reduce the dependency on conventional insecticides, herbicides.GM Corps improve the quality of nutritional contents and of food products, bring higher net economic returns to the farmers and reduce the risk of environment pollution.
A number of developed and developing countries including USA, Argentina, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Spain, France, South Africa and China are growing genetically modified crops. The Indian first Transgenic crop BT cotton made rapid strides to Bio technology crops in India. Lot of farmers adopted the BT cotton, cultivated more than 700,000 acres and got a lot of gain in terms yields and cost wise. GM Maize illustrated great results in South Africa, and American Continent. Most of the scientific organizations like UK academies of sciences, US National academy of sciences, GRAS- FDA, International Food Policy research Institute- Asia, WHO and all are concluded thatGM Crops can be used to produce foods. The global transgenic crops market is going to be $25 billion by 2010.
Achieving Food and Nutritional security is not easy task, we need to try every option either GM or Conventional. The food grains which are cultivated today are not absolutely wholly natural, some of them are altered by selective breeding or chemicals or Viruses. Definitely, we need to depend on these modern technologies to get bumper yields, disease resistant and drought resistant crops for growing food need. The government and the progressive thinkers should focus on public understanding on AG-Bio technology.
We are against to hunger and poverty, not to the technology.

Climate Change... it’s in our hand

The Global Language Monitor has announced the Top Word of the Decade is ‘Global Warming’ and ‘Climate Change’ was the top phrase. Of course both are caused by greenhouse gases (Water Vapor, carbon, Methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.) major caused by Carbon dioxide and Methane. The greenhouse gases emission is increasing the earth’s temperature. The consequences are raise in sea levels, more rainfall, extreme weather conditions, melting glaciers, and uneven seasons.
Affect to Indian agriculture:
Agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. The impacts of climate change on agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening Indian food security. Higher temperatures are eventually reducing yields of crops and encourage the weed and pest. Changes in precipitation patterns may increase of short-run crop failures and long-run production declines. Climate change will have varying effects irrigated yields for all crops like Rice, wheat, and soybeans which will cause food shortages and dramatic price increases. Increase in temperatures need more fertilizers which cause to higher emissions.Climate change is likely to aggravate the heat stress in dairy animals, adversely affecting their productive and reproductive performance. A preliminary estimate indicates that global warming is likely to lead to a loss of 1.6 million tones in milk production in India by 2020.Indian council for agriculture research (ICAR) studies on the effects of climate change found that a temperature increase of one degree Celsius would mean 3 to 7 per cent fall in wheat, soybean, mustard, groundnut and potato crops.
Climate change is reality and it’s in our hand. We need to take the necessary steps and adopt new technologies. Government has to teach the farmers by switching to crop varieties that could withstand heat, because climate change could improve the chickpea, maize, sorghum and millet crops in the West Coast and the potato and mustard crops in northwest India. Investment in agriculture research is needed to develop heat- resistant crop strains. We need to reduce carbon emissions sharply soon and encourage Bio fuels rather than fossil fuels.
For more details on UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen COP 15:United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Systematic exploitation of tribals

Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh had announced that the empowerment of tribal is essential for equitable growth of the country. He agreed that “The systematic exploitation and social and economic abuse of our tribal communities can no longer be tolerated”. But actually Man Mohan sing government is trying to set up more projects which leads to destroying the natural resources and exploiting the tribal.
TATA and ESSAR are plans to invest Rs.20, 000 crores in a steel plants in Chhattisgarh in 6,500 acres of land, eventually ten villages and 350,000 tribal have to be evacuated and use a large quantity of water from the river Sabari and will pollute the Indravati.Tribal people make up only 9 per cent of the country’s population, but more than 40 per cent of the land used to build development projects has been theirs, according to government estimates.Most tribal don’t want to sell their ancestral land they feel it’s a crime in tribal culture, the State government is forcibly acquiring the land which was not totally voluntary. Some of the tribal are not satisfied with the compensation packages like Land for Land package, Land exchange for Money and Job offer for family.
Facts:
* Government is telling these projects are necessary for attracting investors and GDP growth.
* Tribals are demanding their first right on forest, forest resources and against to “Illegal diversion” of forest land for corporate projects.
* Iron Companies are in upset that all Iron ore bearing blocks in our country are covered with forests. The environment authorities will not give permission so easily to fell trees to clear the land for mining.

A short film on Dongria Kondh tribe is to live in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa state, they are suffering due to a bauxite refinery, built and operated by a British mining company Vedanta Resources.

village for Sale

In India lot of villages are being sold by the governments for setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) claiming that’s for people well being and development. Government is acquiring the villages forcefully or villagers’ own accord by announcing attractive (in papers) rehabilitation packages. Of course... the compensation package is not adequate and not up the market rates.Sometimes these lands are sold and resold for higher prices changing hands to real-estate people.
My fear and emotion is that India’s food security could be weakened by commercialization of agriculture land and lot of villagers are going to loose their livelihood. Why don’t we dare to compare with China, how the agriculture and Industrialization can flourish evenly. China produce food grains almost double than India with less cultivate land and industrial sector also producing more than India. We must protect our agriculture, agriculture based occupations and villages. Humans cannot survive without food and nature.

Father of Green Revolution- Norman Borlaug

The Father of Green revolution Norman Ernest Borlaug has died on September 12th 2009 (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009). Dr.Borlaugh introduced high-yield crop innovations for bumper harvests across the fields of India in 1970s that was a turning point in India’s food production pattern. Borlaug is considered the brain behind India’s Green Revolution. He began working with wheat production in Mexico at the end of World War II. He developed varieties of wheat that were resistant to disease and yielded higher crops. He took these varieties to other continents, where in certain places grain yields more than quadrupled. He has collaborated with scientists from India and Pakistan, in adapting the new wheat to new lands and in gaining acceptance for their production.

The Government of India awarded PADMA VIBHUSHAN in 2006 in Science and Engineering for his role in spreading the Green Revolution to India. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for developing disease-resistant wheat that helped developing world in fighting famine and He was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor bestowed by US Congress, in 2007.In addition to those Dr. Borlaug has received extensive recognition from universities and organizations in six countries: Canada, India, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, and the United States.
“Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world” -Norman Borlaug

Aug,15th 2009 Declared as “Drought India”

India is facing the threat of drought with 60% of rain shortfall and the poorest in 83 years. Farmers are unable to sow crops in this kharif season, India declared 177 districts are in drought among 626 districts. Monsoon rains are critical to India's farm prospects and vital for paddy, sugarcane, oilseeds and other crops. Up to 70 percent of Indians are dependent on farm incomes, and about 60 percent of India's farms depend on rains. This state of calamity will negatively impact on food prices and economy.
The government should take measures to maintain the sufficient food stocks of food grains to distribute in drought affected areas. Necessary steps should be planned for next crop season “Rabi”. We wish the drought couldn’t become famine.

Support Farmers

Farming First

Interim Budget 2009

The India Budget places an importance on agriculture since most of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture. Budget continued the highest priority of rural development.
Highlights of Indian Interim Budget 2009 in agriculture and rural development are:
*Government has set the target for the agriculture credit flow for 2009-10 at Rs 3, 25,000 crore.
*Fertilizer subsidy to go to farmers directly which will be based on nutrients.
*Interest subvention scheme for short term crop loans up to Rs.3 lakh per farmer at the interest rate of 7 per cent per annum to be continued. Additional subvention of 1 per cent to be paid from this year, as incentive to those farmers who repay short term crop loans on schedule.
*Time given to the farmers having more than two hectares of land to pay 75 per cent of their over dues under Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme extended from 30th June, 2009 to 31st December, 2009.
*Taskforce to be set up to examine the issue of debt taken by a large number of farmers in some regions of Maharashtra from private money lenders who were not covered by the loan waiver scheme .
*Additional allocation of Rs 1,000 crore for Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Program (AIBP).
*Allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) stepped up by 30 per cent in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.
*Central assistance for storm-water drainage project increased to Rs 500 crore from Rs 200 crore provided by the interim Budget
*Allocation under National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme increased by 144 per cent to Rs.39, 100 crore in B.E. 2009-10 over B.E. 2008-09.
*New scheme Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) with an allocationof Rs.100 crore launched on pilot basis for integrated development of 1000 villages having population of scheduled castes above 50 per cent.
More Details:indiabudget.nic.in

Mayday Song for Farmers and Peasants

Elect pro-farmer representatives

2009 General elections need to bring relief measures to farmers. Farmers and Farmers organizations should come together to support candidates, who are work for agricultural and rural development. They should consider only candidature not the political parties. As everybody know that 60% of our population depends on agriculture and its subsidiaries. Now agriculture sector is facing crisis and decline phase. We need the support and growth in agriculture sector and protect the rural economy. The elected representatives must look in to the farmer’s issues like:
Minimum Support price, rural development, separate Budget allocation for agriculture, Marketing facilities, agriculture credit, irrigation, crop insurance, modernization of agriculture and implementation of Mr. Swami Nathan Committee recommendations.

I would like to request the Local farmer’s organizations to identify the MLAs, MPs based on their party’s manifestos and Candidatures and educate the farmers to elect them

Recession - Agriculture

Now recession is the trend and Buzzword. India is dependent on USA and other developed nations for its trade. Eventually developing nation’s economy affected by recession due to globalization. The services sector in India is facing some liquidity problems, industrial sector and financial sectors are largely affected by world recession.

Recession- Agriculture:
Indian agriculture has not impacted by global economy crises, except some export oriented crops. About 60-65% of India’s population and workforce depend on agriculture. Country’s agriculture sector will save the India from the huge impact of the global economic recession. Right now agriculture is the key for Indian growth in this difficult time. Agriculture is an absolute necessary, producing the basic human needs of food and clothing and exciting reason is Bio fuels. An Investment in agriculture is considered as a conservative and tangible Investment with consistent returns.Agriculture is the best solutions to maintain economic growth this year. Even in down markets agriculture companies performed very well in 2008 and will do the same in 2009. I wish that the agriculture sector will continue to provide support to our economy.

Appreciate APEDA

Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) is authorized to take measures for registration and protection of IPR (Intellectual Property rights) in respect of special products in India and outside. Lok Sabha passed the APEDA amendment bill 2008 on 12/23/08 aims to provide for the protection of IPR of a new category of” special" agricultural products, including Basmati rice. The new legislation would empower APEDA to safeguard IPR of our other special products and safeguard interests of farmers and traders. In this era of globalization and open market, it is imperative that India takes proactive measures to safeguard and protect IPR of its products.
APEDA has to focus on Geographical Indication (GI) to protect our special products like Basmati rice, Ponni rice, Darjeeling Tea, Nilagiri Tea, Alfonso Mangos and so on. APEDA has to work with Pakistan for protecting Basmati GI status for common interests of the two countries against Biopiracy. More Details:APEDA

Farmers to be blessed by Nanotechnology

"Nanotechnology promises immense possibilities for agriculture," said Prof Dr Basavaraj Madhusudhan of Kuvempu University. Dr. Madhusudhan, while addressing the Bangalore Nano 2008 conference said “Nanotechnology has immense possibilities of growth for Indian agriculture.Nano sensors in plants can detect disease and can provide nano medication. Nanotechnology can reduce agricultural waste and thus pollution. Nano lamination can improve the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. These applications should reach farmers in India in five years.” More details:Bangalore Nano-2008-PIB News

Nano Technology: Nano is a Greek Word, It means one billionth of something. Nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms, molecules, or molecular clusters into structures to create materials and products with new or vastly different properties.

Nano Technology for Agriculture: Agriculture is the backbone of most developing countries, with more than 60% of the population reliant on it for their livelihood. Nanotechnology can improve our understanding of the biology of different crops and thus potentially enhance yields or nutritional values. Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize the agriculture with new tools for the molecular treatment of diseases, rapid disease detection, enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nutrients etc. Smart sensors and smart delivery systems will help the agricultural industry combat viruses and other crop pathogens. By using data to determine soil conditions and plant development, seeding, fertilizer, chemical and water use can be fine-tuned to lower production costs and potentially increase production- all benefiting the farmer.
We should pass the existing technologies to the farmers, afterwards we can think about creative technologies. There is lot of gap between Know-how and Do-how in the farm level.

IFPRI says "Don't Blame GM Crops"

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted scientific study with evidence that Indian farmer’s suicides have not increased by the introduction of GM Crops. The new analysis suggests that if anything, suicides among farmers have been decreasing since the introduction of GM cotton by Monsanto in 2002. It also found that the adoption of pest-resistant BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) cotton varieties had led to massive increases in yield and a 40% decrease in pesticide use.
Although there were initially some catastrophic failures of BT cotton varieties for some farmers after their introduction the report said that conventional varieties did equally badly because of drought. By 2006, BT cotton covered 3.8m hectares or more than 39% of the total cotton area. Yields of the crop have nearly doubled since GM varieties were introduced and India is now the largest cotton producer in Asia and has overtaken the US to become the second largest in the world
The researchers analyzed the data from a variety of sources on suicide of the farmers and on the costs and yields from crops. The report identifies a lack of financial support for farmers as a key problem, absence of a safety net or any other insurance support, the ineffective irrigation systems, the presence of abusive banking systems, the wide availability of highly toxic pesticides, and the potential rewards for suicide likely all contributed to farmer suicides. This has nothing to do with the use of new technology.
Source:PTI NEWS
IFPRI Report:ifpri.org

Severe Fertilizers Shortage

India is facing severe fertilizers shortage problem which leads to downfall in agriculture output. Now food price inflation is high and decline in farm output would result in a further spike in food prices. A protests in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab were resulted the death of farmers and injuries to several others.

The main types of fertilizers are three—Nitrogen, Potash and Phosphate and some complex fertilizers. In India, the government fixes the price at which fertilizers are sold; it also pays manufacturers the difference between price and their cost of manufacture plus a fair return. The fertilizer prices are up because most are made by energy-intensive processes, that the increase in production costs of fertilizers on account of soaring crude prices had begun to squeeze margins of domestic fertilizer firms and this would see the government’s subsidy burden touch an estimated Rs95,000 crore in 2008-09, 1.9% of India’s gross domestic product. The major public sector fertilizer company “Fertilizers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd” is also facing problems with spiraling price of inputs and working capital requirements.
The government should review the supply and demand of fertilizers in the States and the distribution shall be made through cooperative societies as well as private traders being made to ensure the smooth availability for kharif crops at the door step of farmers.

corporate Farming

Corporate farming is a modern agriculture issue, and encompasses not only the farm itself, but also the entire chain of agriculture-related business, including seed supply, agrichemicals, food processing, machinery, storage, transport, distribution, marketing, advertising, and retail sales.
There are corporate in the field like Ballarpur Industries, JK Papers and Wimco in eucalyptus and poplar trees, Green Agro Pack, VST Natural Products, Global Green, Intergarden India, Kempscity Agro Exports and Sterling Agro in gherkins, United Breweries in barley, Nijjer Agro in tomato, Tarai Foods in vegetables, M Todd in mint, and Namdhari Seeds in seeds. There are also various government and semi-government agencies involved. Financial institutions and banks assisting contract farming.
Several State governments, in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, are actively promoting corporate farming, changing laws to enable and support it, and providing companies interested in it with a variety of incentives, including lifting of land ceilings, subsidies and tax rebates.

In my view, the problem is that the Indian farmer is still illiterate to understand clearly that contract farming. The corporate farmer should not treat as Contracted Employee rather than implementation partner. The farm land should be controlled by the independent farmer and input costs like farm machinery, crop insurance,fertilizers,irrigation,pesticides, fuel, and seeds should be born by the corporates.If necessary the government should be flexible on land ceiling for Corporates.Farm Production management contracts between corporate companies and farmers should be transparent and mutual benefited, that should cover crop selection, provision of inputs, production methods, sales channels, buyers and minimum guarantee price. I am impressed of farmer’s partner model by CALYPSO FOODS PRIVATE LIMITED .

Rice shortage- Foord grain crisis

The world's most basic commodity is Rice. Now the headlines are everywhere...Global Rice Shortage, the cost of rice has doubled in the past five weeks. This problem is due to rice shortages in Thailand Vietnam and other Southern Asian Countries. There were so many causes; previous calamity which damaged some of the rice fields, High prices on Insecticides, fertilizer, another cause is the inflation of US dollars and Bio-fuel crops.
The crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce bio fuels like corn-based ethanol. The third is climate change; take the recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grains brought on by swelling populations and incomes.
Modern agriculture techniques are required to overcome rice crisis. Water is the key for rice production, the scientists shall try to create new breed of rice that require less water, and resist disease and insects, that have plentiful harvests. Farmers also think about new improved irrigation and storage methods.