1st Mumbai Edition of Women of India Organic festival in Mumbai inaugurated

Ministry of Women and Child Development

1st Mumbai Edition of Women of India Organic festival in Mumbai inaugurated

Will promote Women farmers & Entrepreneurs Engaged in Organic Produce from across India

Posted On: 16 MAR 2018 6:15PM by PIB Mumbai

Ist Mumbai Edition of Women of India Organic Festival 2018, organised by Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, Maharashtra and with the support of Women & Child Development Ministry, Government of India is inaugurated in Mumbai today. This year’s theme of festival is “Good for Women; Good for India; Good for You”

Speaking in the press conference after inauguration of festival, Juhi Chawala, brand Ambassador of the Organic Women Festival 2018, said, “If we have to secure our next generation from chemical products and the various diseases like cancer, High per tension, diabetes etc., we need to adopt organic farming and organic products. Organic plants and foods are having contain higher amounts of salicylic acid which fights bowel cancer and the hardening of arteries that leads to heart conditions, strokes and other ailments”

 A five day festival is inaugurated by  Maharashtra  Minister for Women & Child Development Smt. Pankaja Munde.

Addressing to the gatherings, Ms. Chawala further said that, “the festival is intended to highlight the health & environmental advantages of organic goods, provide platform for women engaged in production process and boost the development of sustainable & easily accessible sales outlets for women producers from the remote corners of India”.

Smt. Nandita Mishra, Economic Advisor, Union Ministry of Women & Child Development said in the press conference that, under the leadership of Smt. Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister of Women & Child Development, this is the first edition after New Delhi where the Organic Festival of Women is being celebrated. This is the platform for the millions of women and farmers to know about the scientific information and clear their doubts. She further said that, her ministry has believe that, such kind of festival will give boost to the grass root women and farmers. She asked women to participate in such festivals and spread awareness about organic foods and farming information all over the world.

Answering to the question of why organic food grains like cereals, jawar, maza are more expensive than regular grains?, Smt. Juhi Chawala said, organic seeds are costly therefore; further process of production become costly but in the government organic stores, all products are available in reasonable prices. There is lack of awareness among the people about organic food grains.  Such types of Organic stores needs to be known by the common people.

Smt Vidya Thakur, Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Smt. Indra Mallo, VCMD, Mahila arthik Vikas Mandal, Smt, Daian Pande, Holistic Health Expert, Well Known and legendry Cine Actor and actresses Jackey Shroff, Tanuja, and Madhu were present to the festival from cine world.   

Backgrounder: “Women of India Festival2018” is celebrated since 2015. This is the third year, which is organised in the Mumbai by Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal, Maharashtra. Around 500 women from all over India are participating in these 5 days event from 16 th to 20th March 2018. The organic products include pulses, cereals, spices, cosmetics, oils, honey, pickles and preserves, tea, organic seeds, composters, among other bio-products are available for sale.

PIB/BG

(Release ID: 1524890) Visitor Counter : 655 

Background release reference

1st Mumbai Edition of Women of India Organic festival in Mumbai inaugurated

SOURCE : http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1524890

ARTICLE : Sowing hope: How some women have given organic farming a fillip by collecting seeds of long-forgotten vegetable varieties

Maneka Gandhi Mar 05, 2018 17:32:18 IST

Organic farming for me is as important as animal welfare. Both save thousands of species and make the world a better place for humans. When I became Minister for Women and Children, the ministry started a new project of holding an annual Mela in Delhi Haat, for 15 days, in which 300 women organic farmers are called from all over India to sell their produce. This year,  products worth Rs 2 crore worth were sold and the ministry sent 50 women to a huge organic mela in Ahmedabad organised by Srishthi and now we are preparing for one in Mumbai in February.

I also make sure that one or more women organic farmers, or groups, get the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti award. In 2016, the best exhibition I went to was one of wandering pastoral tribes in India and the NGOs that conserve their cultural forms, camels and their milk. The best exhibition I went to this year was a huge organic one in Noida which had more than 700 companies, institutions, NGOs and individuals taking part. It was organised by OFAI which is headquartered in Goa and headed by Dr Claude Alvares. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings for my sister made of red ratti (used to weigh gold at one point) and white Vaijayanti seeds made by a farmer’s wife.

Representational image. Reuters

The Sikkim pavilion was the most impressive and the chief minister of Sikkim should get a Bharat Ratna for the work he has done to make the whole state organic. There were hundreds of varieties of rice, including one that you don’t have to boil, just simply pour hot water on. I saw vegetables that I have never seen before: huge long, white, aubergines (baingan), every variety of kaddu, cucumber and chilli. I saw red potatoes and at least 50 varieties of rajma ranging from white to purple. When I ate the lunch thali of village vegetables, I thought I’d died and gone to Food Heaven!

I would like you to know these women who have changed thousands of lives by simply collecting old seeds of long-forgotten vegetable varieties.

The Vanastree Malnad Garden and Seed Savers Collective in Sirsi, Karnataka is run by women. They have documented 120 varieties of vegetables, from the tiny sparrow ladies fingers (bhindi) to old varieties of sugarcane. All these are heritage seeds. You can get in touch with them at sunitasirsi@gmail.com.

Annadana is a Karnataka NGO started by Sangita Sharma. For the last few years, it has been practising and teaching sustainable farm practices and conserving over 200 old vegetable seeds. Sharma had realised that seed corporations and agricultural institutes were blasting seeds with toxins, chemicals and pesticides, contaminating all the food so she decided to start collecting, growing and distributing seeds to farmers. So far, she has distributed 3 lakh free seed packets to marginal farmers and is selling them at a low cost to garden enthusiasts. She has a training programme, called Seed to Seed, on soil health management. Sharma's core group now comprises 18 farmers who teach and they can be contacted at info@annadana-india.org

Niranjana Maru is from Wardha and has formed an NGO called Chetana Vikas. They have a demonstration farm of trees, grasses, tubers and fodder and concentrate on wasteland regeneration through teaching a mixed cropping system to local farmers. You can write to her at chetanavikaswda@gmail.com

Sabarmati Tiki is the daughter of Prof Radhamohan who bought degraded land in Nayagarh and, despite people calling his mission impossible, decided to regenerate it. He named the farm “sambhav” or “possible”. Sabarmati and her team grow 314 traditional rice varieties at the farm and distribute the seeds to farmers in Odisha. She can be contacted at sabarmati@gmail.com

Pebble Garden is a land regeneration project started by Deepika Kundaji on seven acres of laterite soil which was severely eroded with no topsoil. She and her partner set out to bring the old forest back, created water bodies, built up the soil by putting organic mulch and neighbourhood kitchen waste. Today, the land grows 80 varieties of vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants, many of which are endangered and never seen in markets. The seeds of these plants are shared with other farmers and seed savers. Contact her at pebblegardenforest@gmail.com

Mohinee Bhiste comes from Raigarh, Nainital and is part of a network of women farmers called Jan Prerna Sangathan. In 2009, she and her friends started exploring traditional seeds. They have made a bank of seeds of local wheat, millet, maize, barley and vegetables, where farmers can take freely provided they return double the quantity after the harvest. You can contact them at 09568254945.

And who can forget the contribution of Dr Vandana Shiva, who has been writing and working for non-violent farming and biodiversity since 1984? She has been actively involved in conserving 5,000 crop varieties, among them 3,000 kinds of rice, 150 kinds of wheat, 150 kinds of rajma and the rest vegetables and pulses. They have their own seed bank of 45 acres in Sherpur, Uttarakhand. I buy a lot of my monthly rations from Navdanya. You can contact her at dehradun@navdanya.net

This year for Diwali, I didn’t give useless mithai/statues / Ganeshes / dates or badams as gifts. I filled baskets of organic grains, pulses, jams, pickles, brought from small organic farmers from all over India, and gave these. Needless to say, each recipient was more than happy. After all, each one of us likes to eat well and the taste of organic wild rice, for instance, is incredible! We also like to feel safe, that our food is not giving us cancer. And we can only do that if we go forward to insisting on nonchemical, non-poisonous food. If you know any farmers, try to make them switch. As starter gifts, you can buy seeds from these women and give them to farmers.

Two Hindi proverbs say: kathiya gehu kargi dhan, jo bove vah chatur kisan. Farmers who grow Kathiya wheat and Kargi rice (both organic old varieties) are clever (because both can grow in dry and rainfed conditions. Kodau kare bhale mein chote, chote bade bhartev pet: Kodo, a millet, may be small in size but it feeds everyone from children to the elderly under adverse conditions.

Shamika Mone has written a source book on India’s organic seeds. You should definitely buy it from OFAI, Mapusa, goamyofai@gmail.com

To join the animal welfare movement contact gandhim@nic.in, www.peopleforanimalsindia.org

Published Date: Mar 05, 2018 17:29 PM | Updated Date: Mar 05, 2018 17:32 PM

SOURCE : https://www.firstpost.com/india/sowing-hope-how-some-women-have-given-organic-farming-a-fillip-by-collecting-seeds-of-long-forgotten-vegetable-varieties-4377263.html

NEWS: FARMING THE ORGANIC WAY WITH JUHI CHAWLA

By Natasha Coutinho, Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Feb 20, 2018, 04.03 AM IST

The actress who often takes off to her two farms, will be the face of a women’s organic festival coming to the city for the first time.

Actress and environmentalist Juhi Chawla has now been announced as the brand ambassador by the Government of India for a women empowerment project. The actress will be the face of Women’s Organic Festival of India. Juhi who owns two farms on the outskirts of Mumbai, says she couldn’t be happier to take on this new role.

Confirming the news she told Mirror, “The idea is to create awareness about this organic festival happening in Mumbai for the first time. I’m taking my duties further and using my friendships and contacts to invite people who are interested in organic farming. We have organic produce coming from all over India, from as far as Leh-Ladakh and Kanyakumari, from Kohima and Kutch. The aim is to whip up nostalgia for the small markets of the ’70 and ’80s.”

A proud farmer herself, Juhi loves working in her field whenever she finds the time. “Twenty years ago, when my father was close to retirement, he bought land in Wada, outside Mumbai, on the banks of the Vaitarna river. He would travel there often to develop his farm. I barely visited then, being busy with my films and shoots. But when he passed away ten years ago, it became my responsibility to look after the land,” she reminisces.

Initially she knew nothing about farming but has developed a passion for it over the years, “During my father’s time we had a lot of trees which died due to neglect. But now we once again have as many as 200 mango, banana, and papaya trees. We have started farming pomegranates and pears, along with other kinds of fruits, vegetables and even rice. It is delightful to leave the city and enjoy the farm in all its glory,” she beams.

Juhi bought another farm eight-10 years ago, 15 minutes from the Mandwa jetty, at the foot of the hills. “We have two wells and several mango and papaya trees there. We also cultivate rice. Jay (Husband Jay Mehta) recently decided that he would like to grow vegetables for his restaurant there. He has now got an organic horticulturist on board and we are learning how to grow fruits and veggies in a better way.”

SOURCE : https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/farming-the-organic-way-with-juhi-chawla/articleshow/62990045.cms

This Seed Keeper Preserves Over 500 Rare Varieties. Here’s How You Can Become One Too!

In a world where the hybrid seed has become a norm, it is important for seed keepers to continue to ensure that varieties of indigenous plants and vegetables are available for posterity!

by Prabhakar RaoJanuary 31, 2018, 5:31 pm

In today’s world, if one had to make a shopping list for buying vegetables, you would say –

Beans – half a kilo
Cucumber – half a kilo
Carrots – one kilo
Capsicum – quarter kilo and so on.

This is because there usually is just one variety of any vegetable available in the market. It is indeed an exception to find, say, three colours of capsicum or two kinds of beans.

But if you went to the market 100 years ago, you might have seen hundreds of varieties of cabbage, peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and sweet-corn to choose from!

Brown and Violet Peppers

The July edition of 2011, National Geographic magazine carried this info-graphic that succinctly captures the gravity of the situation.

In 1983 the Rural Advancement Foundation International conducted a study on the kind of biodiversity that existed in 1903. What you can see from the slide is, that in just 80 years, we had lost 93% of all the vegetable varieties that existed.

That was in 1983. If we did the same study today, we would find that we have lost 99% of the biodiversity amongst vegetables.

For thousands of years, dedicated farmers and seed keepers created and preserved tens of thousands of varieties of vegetables. In just 100 years we have lost nearly all of them.

What has changed in the past 100 years? Till just a century ago, passionate farmers selected the best plants in the fields to create seed for the next season. There was never a business model in the multiplication of seeds. If the Seed Keeper shared just a seed with a farmer, that farmer could make any number of seeds from it, and grow the same vegetable season after season. In effect, every farmer was a Seed Keeper who preserved seeds for posterity.

Somewhere after the Green Revolution of the 60s, it was felt seed production could be a profitable business model. But to sustain this business model, it required farmers return to the seed company every season to buy new seed.

Selling indigenous seed that belonged to the Seed Keepers could never be a sustainable business model because farmers could buy it once and then multiply it themselves at the end of the season.

Pink Corn

To ensure that a sustainable business model was established in the seed industry, companies started to make seeds from which the farmer could not make seed for the next season. That started the era of the hybrid and GMO seeds. Today almost all the seeds sold by seed companies to vegetable farmers are hybrid or GMO.

In the past 50 years, farmers have lost the tradition of saving seeds almost completely. It is the norm today for farmers to buy seed every season for growing vegetables.

I remember the late 70s when I was completing my doctoral studies in agriculture. I belonged to the lineage of Dr M.S. Swaminathan and Dr Norman Borloug, who created the Green Revolution. It was my generation of agricultural scientists who promoted industrial agriculture. We were the ones who persuaded farmers to adopt chemical farming. We were the ones who told farmers do put urea and D.A.P.

We were the ones who told farmers to use hybrid seeds. We needed to create national food security and to give due credit I do believe that our generation of scientists achieved that.

Dr. Rao explaining seed varieties

But somewhere deep inside there was a small voice within me that kept asking me if we were doing the right thing. That small voice kept asking me if this was a sustainable model for agriculture even after I left the field to pursue a career in landscape architecture.

During the course of my career, I had many opportunities to travel to the remotest parts of the planet. One of the things that I particularly enjoyed doing on these trips, was to spend time with the older generation of farmers. I used to discuss with them about the kind of vegetables they grew during their times, and how times have changed.

---

You may also like: 5 Farmers Who Prove Smart Agriculture Can Make You Rich

---

Surprisingly, many of these farmers actually retained a few seeds of the ancient indigenous native vegetable varieties with them. Understanding my passion to preserve these ancient varieties, they shared with me a few of their seeds.

And so, for 25 years, I collected indigenous seeds from many parts of India and far-flung corners of the Earth. As a part of the Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit organization based in the US, I shared these seeds with many other Seed Keepers across the world.

When I returned to India in 2011, I decided to become a full-time Seed Keeper. I collected nearly 540 varieties of indigenous native vegetable seeds that were on the brink of extinction.

Participants harvesting exotic vegetables and fruits

At Hariyalee Seeds farms, just on the outskirts of Bengaluru, I started testing these varieties for genetic stability and environmental suitability.

At Hariyalee Seeds, you will find, 19 varieties of 23 tomatoes, 24 varieties of capsicum and chillies, six varieties of brinjals, five types of Okras, 11 varieties of Basils, 15 varieties of edible lettuces and mustards and many more wonderful vegetables that you and I need to protect for posterity.

Over the past six years, I managed to successfully multiply about 142 varieties of indigenous vegetables that anyone can grow in India.

Over the past two years, all these vegetable varieties have been made available to friends, farmers, and urban gardeners. Hundreds of people have enjoyed the experience of growing these vegetables with their own hands. Many farmers have used these exotic indigenous vegetables to generate a high-income revenue stream.

In fact, there was one farmer who grew a variety of cherry tomato with multiple colour variations that looked like candy. He was able to sell this variety at Rs.300 per kilo.

In a world where a farmer is happy to get Rs.20 per kilo for tomato in the best of times, selling tomatoes at Rs.300 a kilo sounds like a dream too good to be true.

Another advantage of growing indigenous vegetable seeds is that they are incredibly hardy and easy to grow. This is because native vegetable seeds have been selected by nature over thousands of years and had learnt to survive under the harshest of conditions.

While growing these exotic indigenous seeds can be an enjoyable pastime for home gardeners, they are at the same time making an extraordinary contribution to the genetic biodiversity of vegetables on this planet.

It doesn’t matter if the vegetable is growing in a pot on your balcony, in your kitchen garden, or in a farmers’ field in some remote part of India. The fact is that we are giving a chance for that vegetable variety to remain with us for posterity.

We are in effect, becoming modern-day Seed Keepers.

I am sure that in each one of you, at this very moment, there is this desire, to be a part of this movement to preserve these ancient indigenous seeds for posterity. Let’s all join hands to revive the Golden Age of The Seed Keepers!

NEWS: Actors and their trysts with agriculture

By Surya Praphulla Kumar  |   Published: 16th September 2016 09:51 AM  |  

Last Updated: 16th September 2016 09:52 AM  |

These actors and directors who have taken up farming can teach you a thing or two about being self sufficient.

In the last decade, there haven’t been too many actors who have captured the global imagination as much as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. So when the Fury star bought a French winery four years ago and proclaimed “I’m a farmer now”, the world sat up and took notice. As it turned out, Pitt—who encourages his children to work on their own organic patches at home—was not satisfied with just a land deed to his name. He told the Daily Mail that he loved “learning about the land and which field is suitable for which grape” because it is the “antithesis of the drive, the want, the need to get ahead, that is indicative of life in Hollywood”.

This need to escape the arclights every now and then and return to a simpler life is finding resonance closer to home. While R Madhavan has set up a terrace garden in his penthouse in Mumbai—where he grows organic vegetables using hydroponics (a farming method using water and no soil), Bollywood stars like Salman Khan are growing produce in their backyard. But the more interesting stories belong to actors who have purchased tracts of farm land and are actually manning tractors and harvesting grain with their families in tow. Nawazuddin Siddiqui candidly admits that till he was in his mid-20s, he used to actively work on his farm. “Agriculture has been in our family for a long time, from my grandfather’s and great grandfather’s time. Now I have two farms, a 70 acre and a 15 acre one in Budhana, a village in Uttar Pradesh,” says the Freaky Ali star, who makes it a point to visit them at least five times a year, spending a minimum of 10 days each, immersing himself in the day-to-day work.

For others, the interest has been sparked in response to the chemically-treated foods we are forced to consume. Down South, filmmaker Vetrimaaran has acquired farmland and is currently detoxifying the ground because he wants to begin organic farming. “It’s worrying that we are literally eating poison in the form of food. It is pumped with fertilisers and pesticides, and most of them are carcinogenic. Whoever can, should start taking the cause of the land seriously,” says the Visaranai director, adding that “celebrities getting involved does change the way people look at organic farming”. But he cautions that the starry connect shouldn’t dilute the main idea, of sustainable organic farming, especially with big players and big money coming into the picture.

In the Malayalam film industry, too, top actors like Mammootty and Srinivasan are trying to get the message across by getting back to their roots. The former practises natural paddy cultivation (using manure like green leaves and cow dung) in his 17 acres of land near Kottayam, in Kerala. He even drove a tractor and helped transplant saplings (pictures of which went viral a few years ago), to stress the point. Around the same time, a video of Srinivasan sowing seeds in his paddy field in Kandanad also took social media by storm. The actor later admitted that he hoped it would inspire more people to take up farming. “It is easy to buy organic vegetables and foods from the market, but we need to realise that we can grow them ourselves,” he had stated. This is a lesson we need to learn quickly. If stars can balance roles, red carpets and farming, it’s time we took pointers. If you need more inspiration, read on.

Kishore Kumar G, Karnataka
I am from a rural family, one that had its eyes set on the city. They wanted to come to the city for a better life and better opportunities. But my aim now is the opposite and they often call me mad for doing what I do,” chuckles the Kabali actor, who has an eight-acre farm near the Bannerghatta National Park. Recalling how, in the beginning, he only wanted to see yield, the 42-year-old admits that experience soon changed his stance. “When I saw the saplings I planted grow, my perception shifted. It’s such a matter of pride to see something you’ve nurtured grow that way, just like how you bring up kids,” he shares, adding, “My kids are still a little young, but I am letting them grow things on tiny patches of land so they inculcate the habit.” While the produce they harvested was initially for personal use, in 2012 they opened an organic store called Buffalo Back. “My wife, Vishala, is very proactive. The store, which aims to promote organic products, was her idea. We started off with a branch in Jaynagar and now we have an outlet in Malleshwaram, with more in the pipeline,” he says. While he hasn’t moved to the farmhouse yet, the actor—who has films like Vada Chennai, Kitna and Saatai 2 releasing soon—says they will do so by the end of the year. “Farming has changed me as a person. I’ve learnt a lot—simplicity, discipline. We have embraced a minimalist life. Life has become a lot easier now. Plus we’re self-sufficient,” he says

Pasupathy Ramasaamy Solai, Tamil Nadu
For the Aravaan actor, farming is a family project. On his three-acre land in Periyapalayam—which he bought for the simple reason that he wanted to grow and eat good food—everyone pitches in. “My wife is very interested in agriculture, my four-year-old helps out by pulling out weeds and harvesting small crops like coriander, even my personal assistant comes down often to help,” says the 47-year-old, whose self-sufficient model has inspired many fellow agriculturalists and farming enthusiasts to visit and emulate. For Pasupathy, his life is now about going back to the basics. He mostly grows local and indigenous plants and trees. “We started off with rice, chickpeas, legumes and pulses, and a lot of trees. We also have chicken, cows and fish. Whatever the household needs for a year is more or less grown here,” he states. Choosy about his work, the actor only takes a few projects, which gives him plenty of time to do what he enjoys. But when he does juggle roles, his wife takes over. “My wife (Suriya) is an architect, but she quit it to get into this full time. She handles everything and sometimes I feel like a visitor,” he laughs. Self-sufficient even when it comes to labour, he admits to hiring help at the farm only when the work is too much to handle by themselves. “Farming isn’t easy. It needs an attitude, a confidence and a lot of humility. If we want to see a change, we need to make it. The Gandhian philosophy says grow local food and eat local. I look at it as a way of life rather than a political principle,” he concludes.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Uttar Pradesh
If there is ever a tale of rags-to-riches and balancing the high life and the slow, then Siddiqui’s is it. If you spot the 42-year-old walking the red carpet at Cannes and hobnobbing with tinseltown royalty on one day, just a few weeks later, you’ll find him in a tee and comfortable shoes, tilling the soil or harvesting tomatoes in his farms in UP. “It’s very relaxing. When you’re doing difficult characters and you go there and drive a tractor, it really keeps you grounded,” he says, adding, “When I’m there I wake up early, by 5 am; it’s not a city where we can sleep in.” He is often accompanied by his family and, while his wife Anjali isn’t too interested, his children are curious. “They’re too young to work or help around right now, but let’s see when they grow up, how they look at the place,” he smiles. Siddiqui, who harvests rice, wheat, millets and a whole host of vegetables (which he sends home and also sells at local markets), is most excited by a new irrigation system he will be introducing in a month. “When I was in Cannes last year (for Raman Raghav 2.0), I visited Nice and met a few filmmakers and farmers. They told me about their centre pivot irrigation (an overhead sprinkler system that is efficient and conserves water). I will be doing that in my farmland, so others can also make use of it. If you look at our villages, we use so much water. Our generation will manage, but what about the next?” he asks. The actor is also clear that when he finally bids adieu to the screen, he will return to the land because “it’s in my blood, there’s no running away from it”.

I was passionate about going back to my roots (my father had a farm in Karnataka). So I bought a few acres of land 10 years back and started planting trees. In the last four-five years, I’ve become a serious farmer, growing vegetables and grains. I’m currently working with agriculturalists like Bannur Krishnappa (Mysore) and Subhash Palekar (Maharashtra) to start seed banking at our nursery in Auroville, and encourage local species.—Prakash Raj, actor

I have been farming organically for 20 years. There’s no comfort like growing your own food, being healthy and self sufficient. However, the younger generation doesn’t always understand this. My own kids don’t have the interest. But at the end of the day, our land is our backbone and we should always find a way to go back to it.—Salim Kumar, actor

I’ve just started learning the basics; I’m growing bananas, jackfruit and mango trees to begin with. Hopefully, someday everyone will have a little garden of their own. When we were in school, we were taught to grow our own produce—when you grow your food, you respect what you eat.—Sunder Ramu, actor-photographer

—with inputs from Lavanya Lakshminarayanan

SOURCE : http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/2016/sep/16/Actors-and-their-trysts-with-agriculture-1520209.html

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

Fri, Aug 05 2016. 08 14 PM

06 August 2016 | E-Paper

Sayantan Bera
Sayantan Bera

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