Wednesday, August 31, 2016

OPINION : Cotton, mustard, two GM debates

On one, government must not give in to armtwisting by the MNC. On the other, safety and productivity remain a concern.

Written by Vijay Chauthaiwale | Published:August 31, 2016 12:02 am

First, an important disclaimer: This commentary is a reflection of my personal views as a molecular biologist and scientist involved in high-end innovation. It does not represent views of RSS, BJP or Indian government.
In principle, I am not against GM crops but I am against GM food. As an example, it means that in principle, I am not against Bt cotton but I am against GM mustard. Last week, Monsanto withdrew its application for permission to launch its latest variety of Bt cotton (Bollgard II), in opposition to the Indian government’s directive to put an overall price cap Bt cotton seeds and a cap on the royalty which Monsanto earns on every packet. Almost simultaneously, there is news that domestically developed GM mustard has moved one step ahead in the approval process.
I appreciate the fact that any new ground-breaking technology or product is a result of significant investments, several failures and a long gestation period and therefore, needs to be protected from illegal copying. This is typically achieved by protecting intellectual property worldwide and enforcing it by legal and statutory means. In order to recover these investments, earn a profit and reinvest in newer technology, there is bound to be a price differential between patented products and non-patented generic products. In such cases, the consumer is willing to pay a higher price for the proprietary product only if it fulfils an “unmet need” and/or offers advantages over existing products and technologies.
Bt cotton was launched in India without appropriate regulatory oversight. But that’s the past. Today, the fact that more than 90 per cent Indian farmers are using Bt cotton seeds, shows that farmers are happy with its advantages over non-GM varieties. Several Indian seed companies sell Bt cotton seeds, all of them use technology licensed from Monsanto and pay close to 30 per cent royalty on every packet.
Angered by the government’s decision to slash prices and royalties, Monsanto has decided not to introduce a newer variety of Bt cotton, taking undue advantage of its monopolistic position. First of all, while there are clear advantages to using Bt cotton seeds over non-Bt seeds, there are no such advantages with the newer Bollgard II over the existing Bollgard I variety. On the contrary, one study in the US shows — under laboratory conditions — resistance of pests to Bollgard II has gone up from two per cent to 50 per cent in just four years. Secondly, linear and temporal data comparing the two seed varieties in Indian conditions is not available. In addition, once Bollgard II is introduced, Monsanto will likely charge a premium over the current price of Bollgard I and withdraw the latter from the market (which Monsanto has done in other countries), compelling farmers to pay more for a product whose incremental benefits are questionable and whose lack of efficacy in long-term insect resistance is well documented.
While innovators should be compensated for their intellectual property, 30 per cent royalty is unreasonable. In most cases, such a royalty is in single digits and it reduces over a period of time. It is assumed that the reduced percentage of royalties can be partially compensated by an increase in volume. In the drug industry, there are examples of lower pricing for patented drugs than developing countries, partly due to affordability and partly due to potentially high volumes. There is no reason why Monsanto cannot follow the same practice and still make a profit.
Making new technology inaccessible to Indian farmers is clearly a case of arm-twisting. Indian farmers are innovative enough to maximise yields from existing varieties. The government should not succumb to such pressure tactics.
The case of GM food is totally different. Any food item, once available in the market, becomes unrestricted and is likely to be consumed by all groups — from children to the elderly, from the healthy to the ill, by pregnant women and lactating mothers. I doubt if the safety of GM foods for such a wide population can be adequately determined. GM food should be tested with the same rigour as any new drug to be used for chronic diseases. Unless such a foolproof mechanism is in place, one should be sceptical about introducing GM food to the market.
The specific case of GM mustard has an added complication. As the technology is “swadeshi” — developed by a government of India research institute — no one can call it an imperialistic design by multinationals. While I would like to congratulate the scientists who developed GM mustard, there is a big question mark on the quality of this technology on account of the yield. It is claimed that GM mustard will have 25-30 per cent higher yield than non-GM mustard. A 30 per cent increase in yield in controlled conditions is unlikely to result in a significant change in field conditions. Even to show 30 per cent higher yield in controlled conditions, the sample size needs to be very large to be statistically significant.
And even if it is statistically significant in trials, material benefit over existing varieties in a wide spectrum of soil compositions, rainfall patterns, environmental conditions etc will be a mammoth task to substantiate.
The writer, a molecular biologist, is in-charge of the foreign affairs department of the BJP.


SOURCE: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/cotton-mustard-two-gm-debates-3004656/

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

21 Aug 2016, समर्थ शेतकरी मांदियाळी कृषी प्रतिनिधींसाठी एक दिवसीय प्रशिक्षण शिबीर

Inline image 1

श्री स्वामी समर्थ सेवा व आध्यात्मिक विकास मार्ग (दिंडोरी प्रणित)

कृषिशास्त्र विभाग

समर्थ शेतकरी मांदियाळी

विदर्भ विभाग (अमरावती, अकोला, बुलढाणा, वाशिम, यवतमाळ, वर्धा, नागपूर, गोंदिया, भंडारा, चंद्रपूर, गडचिरोली ) 

समर्थ कृषी विज्ञान द्वारा

कृषी प्रतिनिधींसाठी एक दिवसीय प्रशिक्षण शिबीर

प.पु.गुरुमाऊलींच्या आशिर्वादाने सेवा मार्गाच्या ग्रामअभियानातून शेतकऱ्यांसाठी अनेक सेवाभावी उपक्रम राबविले जात असून या महान कार्यात सहभागी होण्याची सुवर्णसंधी आपणास प्राप्त झालेली आहे. कृषिशास्त्र विभागात सेवा व सक्रीय सहभाग घेऊ इच्छिणाऱ्या व ग्रामाभियानातील कार्यरत सेवेकरीसाठी आदरणीय आबासाहेबांच्या प्रमुख उपस्थितीत विशेष प्रशिक्षण शिबीर आयोजित करण्यात आले आहे. या सुवर्णसंधीचा सर्वानी लाभ घ्यावा

रविवार  दिनांक २१ ऑगष्ट २०१६  

वेळ स ९:०० ते सायं ६:०० पर्यंत  

ठिकाण: सिद्धार्थ मंगलम कार्यालय, बडनेरा रोड, अमरावती. 

प्रशिक्षण संदर्भात अधिक माहिती व नाव नोंदणीसाठी संपर्क : 
 
दिंडोरी कार्यालय:
७७५७००८६५२,९४२०१३४४५९
☎(०२५५७) २२१७१०

विशेष सूचना
येताना स्वत: सोबत वही, पेन इ साहित्य आणावे. 
दूरच्या जिल्ह्यातील सेवेकरीकरिता आदल्यादिवशी कार्यक्रमस्थळी निवास व्यवस्था करण्यात येणार आहे, त्यासाठी 18 ऑगष्ट पर्यंत संपर्क करून नाव नोंदणी करणे गरजेचे आहे.

निवास व्यवस्थेकरिता संपर्क क्रमांक : ९४०३४३४४७१

OFSG meet on 27-28 Aug 2016 at Khalad, Pune

Organic Farmer Study Group (OFSG) meeting that takes place regularly at Khalad, Pune is scheduled for 27-28 august 2016 
contact Pandurang Shitole kaka ( +91 98-22-012442)  to participate. 

Monday, August 15, 2016

Devendra Fadnavis opens Mumbai’s first farmer-to-consumer market

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis says efforts will be made to make available premises of government offices to establish direct markets


Mumbai: A month after his government freed fruit and vegetable farmers from the grip of traders and middlemen, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday opened a farmers’ market—on the premises of the state legislative building.
The market, which will be open every Sunday, stocks around 35 tonnes of vegetables produced by farmers from Junnar in Pune district, Palghar and Thane. Fadnavis, who bought vegetables from the market, said efforts will also be made to make available the premises of government offices wherever possible in Mumbai to establish similar direct markets.
In July, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government freed the sale of vegetables and fruits from the purview of the archaic Maharashtra Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act.
The amendment allowed farmers to sell directly to consumers, cutting out traders at agricultural produce marketing committees (APMC) to whom they had to mandatorily sell till then.
The multi-tier regulation system involved levies that farmers had to pay for transport, loading and unloading, and weighing. Most of these levies go to intermediaries like the traders, weighing agents, transporters and labourers.
But the cumulative cost of the levies is passed on to the consumer, effectively denying the farmer the right to determine the price of his produce. The Union government has recommended establishing more direct markets, which would also make APMC-regulated markets more competitive.
The farmers at Sunday’s market have formed cooperatives to market their goods, said an official from the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) which facilitated this initiative. There are about 40 stalls at this market which will trade every Sunday between 9am and 3pm.
“We have also requested the legislative assembly speaker to let the market operate on one of the weekdays also. The idea is to provide farmers and consumers with an interface at strategic, clean, and accessible locations,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.
Fadnavis said the market brought “least handled and farm fresh vegetables” directly to consumers. “There are no intermediaries and the quality of the produce is self-evident because it has not come through the chain of multiple handlers.”
Minister of state for marketing Sadabhau Khot, a farmer himself, said the government had facilitated establishment of 35 such markets in the state after the amendment to the APMC Act.
SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/8zWvT51A3H3Ny6kgrGBVFI/Devendra-Fadnavis-opens-Mumbais-first-farmertoconsumer-ma.html




Saturday, August 6, 2016

NEWS: Farmers plant more area under pulses, move away from Bt cotton

Fri, Aug 05 2016. 08 14 PM
06 August 2016 | E-Paper

The agriculture ministry says an area of 12.1 million hectares has been planted with pulses, over 11% more than the five-year average sown under the crop


New Delhi: Buoyed by good rains and higher prices, farmers across India have planted a record area under different varieties of pulses, shows data released by the agriculture ministry on Friday. So far, an area of 12.1 million hectares has been planted with pulses, over 11% more than the five-year average sown under the crop.
While these numbers could rise as the data is updated in the coming weeks, compared to year-ago figures, sowing of pulses is nearly 35% more—12.1 million hectares as against 8.97 million hectares in 2015-16.
While area under pulses touched a record high, sowing of cotton is down 12.6% compared to normal on fears of pest infestation, the data shows. So far, an area of 9.65 million hectares has been planted under cotton, compared to 10.57 million hectares planted by this time last year.
Interestingly, the data shows that while area under the genetically modified Bt cotton fell from 9.7 million hectares in 2015-16 to 8 million hectares in 2016-17, area under non-Bt desi (indigenous) cotton rose from 0.88 million hectares to 1.66 million hectares during this period.
The reasons for the reduction in area under cotton during the current year are the fear of whitefly infestation in Punjab and Haryana and pink boll worm in central and southern India, said a note from the agriculture ministry.
On pulses, the data shows that farmers in states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have planted a record area under arhar or pigeon pea—a variety that touched Rs.200 a kg in retail markets a few months ago and is still selling at over Rs.140 a kg. A rise in prices of pulses and its impact on food inflation has been a cause of concern for the Centre.
The government took a number of steps such as import of pulses, raising their support prices and creation of a buffer stock of 2 million tonnes to keep prices under control.
It expects production of pulses to come in at 20 million tonnes in 2016-17, over 21% higher than the 16.47 million tonnes estimated for 2015-16. Two consecutive droughts in 2014 and 2015 reduced production of pulses, mostly grown as a rain-fed crop, by over 11% between 2013-14 and 2015-16.
Overall, the data on rain-fed kharif sowing shows that crops like rice, coarse grains, pulses, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton has been planted in an area of 88.5 million hectares, about 5.2% higher than the area sown by this time last year.
While rice has been sown in 28.2 million hectares so far, marginally higher than the 27.6 million hectares sown by this time last year, coarse grains have been sown in 16.4 million hectares, higher than the 15.9 million hectares sown by this time last year.
Maize, which falls under coarse grains, has seen a 13% rise in sowing compared to last year, the data shows. Sowing of oilseeds is also higher by about 6.3%—from 15.7 million hectares last year to 16.7 million hectares this year.
The better-than-normal progress of sowing this year is due to ample rains across India. Data from state-run India Meteorological Department shows that the rainfall recorded till Friday in the ongoing south-west monsoon season is in excess of normal by 2%. Over 80% of India’s area has received normal to excess rainfall so far, the data shows.
Ample rains have also boosted the storage levels in major reservoirs across the country. The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending 4 August was 45% of total capacity, up from a low of 17% at the beginning of the monsoon in June.




SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/Wy2XmviMmmcVsFwwvIe3kJ/Farmers-plant-more-area-under-pulses-move-away-from-Bt-cott.html