2018 6-8 April BEEJOTSAV-BIODIVERSITY @ NAGPUR

Dear friends,

We are happy to invite you to our 6^th year of BEEJOTSAV-BIODIVERSITY at Nagpur from 6^th to 8^th April 2018, a carnival of organic food, foodgrains, spices and the celebration of the sustainable, eco-friendly life style, visibility to seed saver and pastoral communities.

We, at BEEJOTSAV, are a varied group of organic farmers, seed savers, urban farmers and consumers who have been showcasing organic food for last 5 years.. We try to link grass roots farmers and the urban consumer.

We believe that safe, chemical-free food and healthy Biodiversity is the right of every citizen and our movement is a step towards making it available to the consumer.

We invite you to attend it and you can even exhibit your products by taking a stall. 

Festival date: 6^th, 7^th & 8^th April 2018

Time: 10 am to 10 pm

Venue: Mure Memorial Lawns, Amravati Road, Near Variety Square, Nagpur.

Stall size: 8’ X 8’

Stall charges: Rs 2,500/- (for 3 days, doesn’t include food and accommodation charges)

To book your stall(s) please fill up the form here:- https://goo.gl/forms/S5OuIXIbWXHyKHkn1

To register yourself please fill up the form here :- https://goo.gl/forms/khGSyomWRPoq7YZR2

For Stalls:- After filling up the form, please wait for confirmation from our team. After confirmation please go ahead with payment, you can take the account details from any of the following coordinator.

Beejotsav Coordinators:-

Akash Naoghare 9766912745 anaoghare@gmail.com

Sajal Kulkarni  9881479239  sajalskulkarni@gmail.com 

Ashwini Aurangabadkar 9890515814 ashwini.aurangabadkar@gmail.com

NEWS : Bt Cotton responsible for suicides in rain-fed areas, says study

Updated: June 21, 2015 12:26 IST | Vidya Venkat
The Hindu

Annual suicide rates of farmers in rain-fed areas are directly related to increase in Bt Cotton adoption, say scientists. File photo: Kamal Narang | The Hindu

The cultivation of Bt cotton, a genetically modified, insect-resistant cotton variety, is a risky affair for Indian farmers practising rain-fed agriculture, according to a latest study published by California-based agricultural scientists in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe.

Annual suicide rates of farmers in rain-fed areas are directly related to increase in Bt cotton adoption, say the study’s authors Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Luigi Ponti, Hans R. Herren, Johann Baumgärtner and Peter E. Kenmore, who are associated with the University of California, Berkeley, and the Centre for the Analysis of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, California. 

Revisiting the raw annual suicide data for Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra during the period 2001–2010, the authors found 86,607 of 549,414 suicides were by farmers, and 87 % were males with the numbers peaking in the 30–44 age class. Total suicides per year per state were regressed singly on states averages of proportion of area seeded to rainfed cotton, average farm size, cotton growing area, area of Bt cotton, proportion of area with Bt cotton, and simulated average yield/ha that includes the effects of weather. Excluding the proportion of area seeded to rainfed cotton, linear multiple regression shows suicides decrease with increasing farm size and yield but increase with the area under Bt cotton, the authors note. 

The study is significant for two reasons: first, most cotton cultivation in India is rain-fed. Second, between 2002 and 2010, the adoption of Bt cotton hybrid went up significantly to 86 per cent of the total cultivated area of cotton in India, according to International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications.

Though cultivating the Bt cotton variety may be economic in irrigated areas, the costs of Bt seed and insecticide increase the risk of farmer bankruptcy in low-yield rain-fed settings. Further the inability to “use saved seed and inadequate agronomic information trap cotton farmers on biotechnology and insecticide treadmills,” the authors note.

The study also challenges the common assumption in economic analyses that cotton pests must be controlled to prevent monetary losses, thus encouraging Bt cotton adoption. The annual emergence of the key cotton pest pink bollworm in spring is poorly timed to attack rain-fed cotton and large populations of the pest fail to develop in non-Bt rain-fed cotton, the authors note. This reduces and usually prevents the need for Bt cotton and disruptive insecticides. The authors recommend that high-density short-season cottons could increase yields and reduce input costs in irrigated and rain-fed cotton.

Bt cotton has been shown to improve cotton yields by past studies, such as the one conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute in 2012. This study, examining the contribution of Bt cotton adoption to long-term average cotton yields in India in nine cotton-producing States from 1975 to 2009, showed that Bt cotton contributed 19 per cent of total yield growth over time, since its introduction in 2002.

However, experts have responded to the new Berkeley study with concern. Former Union Environment and Rural Development Minister and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh told The Hindu that India, now being the second largest country in the world cultivating Bt cotton, cannot afford to ignore the findings of this new study. “These findings call for serious discussion relating to the GM crop’s long-term sustainability in Indian agriculture,” he said.

Agricultural expert M.S. Swaminathan said the merits of Bt cotton adoption remain debatable as some have approved it for giving better yield, while some question the claim. “However, I support the adoption of higher yielding crop varieties as most of our cotton farmers are small farmers who need better yields to earn profits. Back in 2004, I had advised seed companies selling hybrid cotton to farmers to also sell insurance schemes alongside, so that if crops fail for reasons beyond the farmer’s control, they can recover losses. But these recommendations remain to be adopted widely.”

SOURCE : http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/bt-cotton-responsible-for-suicides-in-rainfed-areas-says-study/article7337684.ece

ARTICLE : Pier-reviewed study on Bt cotton in India - cause of suicides

 

Authors : Andrew Paul Gutierrez, Luigi Ponti, Hans R Herren, Johann Baumgärtner and Peter E Kenmore

 

Environmental Sciences Europe 2015, 27:12  doi:10.1186/s12302-015-0043-8

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.enveurope.com/content/27/1/12

Received:	31 October 2014
Accepted:	22 April 2015
Published:	17 June 2015

© 2015 Gutierrez et al.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.

Conclusions

In the light of this more thorough holistic agro-ecological analysis, recommendations by international agricultural economists [20, 44] and some Indian government official to implement the Bt technology in cotton (and other crops) as a solution for pest problems become questionable. Worldwide, the use of pesticides to solve pest problems promised short-run economic benefit but instead led farmers onto path dependency [56, 91] that increases system complexity by inducing pest outbreaks (iatrogenic effects) that may cause crop losses (idiopathic effects) [34, 47, 92] and increase costs (see Additional file 1). In his 1974 Nobel Prize in Economics lecture titled “The Pretense of Knowledge” concerning larger economic issues, F.A. von Hayek stated “…[economists]…have… little cause for pride: as a profession [we] … made a mess of things” [93]. In biotechnology, agricultural economists have pushed forward agendas without understanding the ecological bases of the crop production problem and in the process they often wrongly filled the information gaps created by corporate intellectual property constraints on field research on GM crops [76]. The adherence to doctrines that exclusively accept or select observations and disregard fundamental ecological principles for supporting scientific claims imposes serious limitations on their conclusions and has been a hindrance to progress in agricultural research [85]. In India and elsewhere, subsistence farmers often lack a clear understanding of pest control issues that trapped them on a pesticide treadmill (e.g., [11]) and now onto a biotechnology treadmill [33] and that ignores the impending collapse of ground water levels for irrigated cotton [26]. Subsistence farmers, especially in areas with low but high variable yields can ill afford the high costs of industrial farming technologies that contribute to bankruptcy and in some suicide cases.

In review, PBW has been a chronic severe problem in long-season irrigated Indian cotton and can provide inoculum for infestations of rainfed cotton during late summer amplifying feedback and creating an inherent conflict between the two systems. When insecticides became available for control of PBW and other pests, outbreaks of highly damaging bollworms (and other pests) were induced, and F1 Bt hybrid cotton that discouraged seed saving was introduced for control. Prior to the onset of heavy pesticide use, bollworm was not a major pest in Indian cotton [48]. As a percentage of the total revenues, the costs of the Bt and insecticide technologies decrease with increasing yield making it an acceptable assurance option in high-yield areas, but not in areas with low yields with high variability where the high costs increase the risk of bankruptcy (and suicide). Suicides in rainfed areas of south-central India are inversely related to farm size and yields and directly related to area of Bt cotton adoption, or more likely the combined high costs of Bt seed and insecticide. Short-season high-density cotton is a viable solution in both irrigated and rainfed cotton reducing the need for the Bt technology. Even where irrigation is available, short-season cotton could be grown rainfed allowing the irrigation water and the period prior to the monsoon to be used for the production of other food crops. This would promote development of diversified and sustainable, including organic agriculture. A recent report shows that despite near complete adoption of Bt cotton in India, insecticide use was higher in 2013 than in 2000 and now targets induced outbreaks of hemipteran insect pests [69]. Last, assuming no change in rainfall, increases in temperature due to climate change during the monsoon season would increase productivity <8 % in rainfed cotton in central and south India. The above results amply illustrate how policy makers need holistic analyses before new technologies are promoted in agricultural development.

 

Authors’ information

A.P. Gutierrez is a professor in the Graduate School in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley, CA, and CEO of CASAS NGO. He has more than 40 years of experience in agro-ecosystem analysis and bio-economics with extensive experience in field research in cotton and other crops worldwide.

L. Ponti is Marie Curie Fellow and a research scientist at ENEA with expertise in modeling and GIS.

H. Herren is World Food Prize Laureate and CEO of the Millennium Institute.

J. Baumgärtner is retired full professor from the University of Milan with expertise in modeling ecosystems including cotton with interest in philosophical aspects of agricultural systems study and management.

P.E. Kenmore has worked over the past 33 years in India, holds an Honorary Doctorate from Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and was formerly head of FAO Plant Protection globally and then head of FAO (Representative) in India.

 

SOURCE : http://www.enveurope.com/content/27/1/12

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12302-015-0043-8/fulltext.html#

NEWS : West African Country Dumps Monsanto’s GM Cotton, Seeks Compensation

Joining the expanding list of GMO rejections
by Christina Sarich
Posted on June 10, 2015

Due to ‘disappointing yields and poor quality cotton fiber,” the country of Burkina Faso in West Africa is ditching Monsanto’s genetically modified cotton.

Jeune Afrique reports that Interprofessional Cotton in Burkina Faso has decided to phase out the use of Monsanto’s GMO cotton seeds over the next three years. This is a group of cotton farmers, banks, research institutions, private stakeholders and the government. It isn’t just cotton farmers that are complaining about Monsanto’s GM cotton, though.

 

Interprofessional Cotton members include the Société burkinabè des fibres textiles (Sofitex), Faso Coton, and the Société cotonnière du Gourma (Socoma, subsidiary of the French group Geocoton).
All of these groups have complained that Monsanto’s GM cotton did not produce quality cotton fiber, and farmers have experienced lower yields than with non-GM cotton. The group will also seek compensation from Monsanto for lower yields they experienced since the 2008 growing season.
The group is denouncing its contract with Monsanto due to the lower quality performance of the GM cotton, and also lower yields.

Advocates of GM cotton state that they have increased agricultural production by more than US$98 billion and saved an estimated 473 million kilograms of pesticides from being sprayed in the US, but critics question their environmental, social, and economic impacts – with good reason. Among the complaints are that GM cotton has caused superweeds, and driven Indian farmers to suicide.

Genetically modified organisms and crops are so controversial that communities, states, and even entire nations are at the very least attempting to ban or suspend these creations – with some areas having notable success. A small example within the U.S. can be seen when a federal judge in southern Oregon recently decided to uphold Jackson County’s ban on genetically engineered crops after two alfalfa farms requested that the ban be blocked.

Another example can be seen with the nation Hungary, which could be the first to introduce the new European Union regulations allowing countries to ban the cultivation of GMO crops.
As time goes on, you can expect to see more suspensions and even bans on Monsanto’s GMOs as well as the company’s herbicidal chemical creations meant to be sprayed on GMO crops.

SOURCE: http://naturalsociety.com/west-african-country-dumps-monsantos-gm-cotton-seeks-compensation/#ixzz3dJCzeT4s