Monsoon Mini Malnad Mela in Bangalore 2012

Dear friends,

This is to inform you that Vanastree will be in Bangalore from June 30 to July 2, 2012, for a multi-location exhibition of produce. Please see the attached flier for details.

We would like to thank some of our generous Friends of Vanastree in Bangalore who have made this possible by offering to host us with accommodation and beautiful venues on Rest House Road, in Indira Nagar and Vyalikaval.

We will have our collection of traditional, open pollinated, organic seeds. More than ever, we urge you all to grow, save, replant, gift and exchange these seeds. There will also be our usual range of Vanastree products from the malnad.

Given below is a link to a film Seeds of Freedom that many of you may like to watch. I have not been able to for lack of good enough connectivity here, so it will be good to hear back from some of you who do get to see it.

 

http://seedsoffreedom.info/

"Seeds of Freedom charts the story of seed from its roots at the heart of traditional, diversity rich farming systems across the world, to being transformed into a powerful commodity, used to monopolise the global food system.The film highlights the extent to which the industrial agricultural system, and genetically modified (GM)seeds in particular, has impacted on the enormous agro -biodiversity evolved by farmers and communities around the world, since the beginning of agriculture."

The monsoon has arrived in the malnad, but is still gentle and sporadic. The rest of India waits with bated breath. We do hope you have to carry your umbrellas to the Bangalore Mela, since unlike other events where people pray it does not rain, we sincerely hope it does!

We look forward to meeting you again.

Regards,
Sunita

-- 
Sunita Rao
Founder Trustee
VANASTREE - the malnad forest garden & seed keepers' collective
Sirsi, Karnataka, INDIA

BLOG : Maharashtra Govt. and CICR Admits Bt.cotton Failure

Nagpur, 21 June 2012

 *"Maharashtra Govt. and CICR initiative to test Non-BT cotton seed in Vidarbha" is admission of Bt.cotton failure - Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti

Vidarbha cotton farmers' advocacy group Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS) has welcomed the move of Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) and The Maharashtra government to implement a pilot project titled as the Brazilian model of Non-Bt cotton promotion in eight districts of Vidarbha region to start cultivation of straight varieties of cotton in place of hybrid or Bt (Genetically-Modified) ones, the government appears to be doing a rethink over its policy of promoting Bt cotton which confirm complete failure of Bt.cotton seed technology but such project will be futile when  nearly 90% of the area under cotton in India is under Bt varieties which cover around 12 million hector and any trial 160 acres of land belonging to 160 farmers in this region will be difficult to give desired result hence we demand complete ban Bt cotton cultivation in dry land region of vidarbha  to make compulsory for cotton farmers’ to cultivate non-Bt straight indigenous varieties which are pr
 oven for
hundreds of years Kishor Tiwari of vidarbha advocacy group Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti (VJAS.) informed today .

“Vidarbha is agrarian crisis is directly linked with as all farmer suicide prone district mono crop  which is predominantly cultivated is Bt cotton since 2005 and now State agriculture commissioner Umakant Dangat officially admitted that  India has the lowest cotton productivity in the world and Maharashtra, the lowest in India and union agriculture  minister Mr Sharad Pawar own admission that Vidarbha dry land farmers are losing more than Rs.2000 crore per year since introduction of Bt cotton seed in vidarbha,    is proven fact that it’s a classic example of promoting wrong technology to wrong class agrarian community as rain sensitive crop has proven killer seed in west vidarbha as 95% farmers opted this technology are dry land farmers," Tiwari added.

“We are shocked to see the statement of the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) Director Keshav Kranthi, who was instrumental to launch Desi-Bt cotton seed which left ICAR red-faced when the fact surfaced that it was stolen technology from Monsanto, now claiming that the cost of seeds of straight varieties is much lower than Bt varieties, besides which these varieties become ready for plucking in just 150-160 days whereas Bt varieties take around 180-200 days, which reduces the need for fertilizers, pesticides and other nutrients substantially. And unlike Bt cotton varieties, seeds derived from straight cotton varieties can be used during the next season where as same Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) and The Maharashtra government to introduce Bt cotton seed resulting nearly 9,000 cotton growing farmers suicide due to Bt cotton failure  since June 2005  hence we demand that Government must come clean on Bt cotton and admit that policy of promoting Bt cotton in the rain-fed areas was wrong, which prompted farmers to commit suicide across the country,” Tiwari said.

‘We need long term planning to develop proven to crop pattern and methodology not trial project of imported technology where as neighboring Andhra Pradesh cotton farmers have adopted NPM [Non Pesticide Management, which doesn't use GM or pesticides in cotton cultivation] practices in nearly 3.5 lakh acres, across different crops. Net returns of farmers are increasing and time has come go back to our traditional sustainable agriculture not MNC base input driven” Tiwari added

SOURCE : http://vidarbhatimes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/maharashtra-govt-and-cicr-admits.html