WATCH : Nilesh Dehankar zero budget natural farming success story

on Sam Marathi News Channel

Published on Mar 21, 2014

Watch Akola based Nilesh Dehankar zero budget natural farming success story through the guidance of Subhash Palekar.http://youtu.be/DNePR1fZTe4

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWgzM99798

Mayans Win Huge Battle to Ban GMO Soy Crops

by Christina Sarich
March 20th, 2014
Updated 03/20/2014 at 12

Mayans of the Campeche Region have just won a two-year legal battle to get rid of Monsanto and their GMO soybeans (suicide beans). Following the ban of GM maize in Mexico, this ancient and agriculturally savvy culture has won a major battle against biotech monopolies around the globe.

The Second District Court ruled in favor of three Mayan communities from the Hopelchén township who dared to take on the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock , Rural Development, Fisheries and Food ( Sagarpa) and the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources ( SEMARNAT).

This means that Saragapa now must make a concerted effort to be sure that no GM soybeans are planted throughout Pachen and Cancabchen communities in Hopelchén. Just two years ago, the same agency allowed Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready GMO soybeans to be planted in the region – infecting more than 253,000 hectares with suicide seeds that cause human infertility and poison the environment.

Read: France Bans GMO Corn Maize Despite EU Commission Pressure

Seven states were under Monsanto’s reign – free then to plant their GM seeds wherever they liked within those borders, including the municipalities of: Campeche, Hopelchén , Tenabo , Calkiní , Escárcega, Carmen and Palisade.

In just a few of these places, the authorities were angry that the government had given Monsanto authorization, and they decided to fight the ruling. Campeche beekeepers were especially upset since this would affect bee-keeping negatively in the region. They called Monsanto’s influence, ‘pollution of production,’ resulting in loss of income and closing of markets for many bee keepers with international contracts.

After two years of litigation, and arguing that the planting of GM soybeans was in direct opposition of traditional beekeeping practices, AND that it was in violation of their right to a healthy environment – pointing out that increased use of herbicides and deforestation were both outcomes of GM planting – the Mayans won their case. These small indigenous communities have taken on the multi-billion-dollar biotech and Big Ag companies and won. They are an example to us all.

Source: http://naturalsociety.com/mayans-win-huge-battle-ban-gmo-crops/

Race to build a living seed bank

JOHN VIDAL | March 20, 2014

Conservaionist Debal Deb talks about the importance of local varieties of seeds and the need to preserve them

Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste — rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had the aroma of mangoes or peanuts, tolerance for saltwater or medicinal value.

Back then, says rice conservationist Debal Deb, India may have had more than 100,000 landraces, or local varieties. “Today there could be just 6,000, with fewer being grown every year. Every community had its own varieties. The rest are no longer cultivated and the knowledge of how to grow them will have been lost.”

Sowing seeds with Vrihi

Deb, a plant-scientist-turned-farmer, is on a mission not just to reintroduce the lost varieties but to improve agriculture for an age of climate change and scarcity. He is cultivating 920 rice varieties on just 2.5 acres in a forested area of the Niyamgiri hills.

His seed bank, Vrihi (Sanskrit for rice), is growing fast as people bring rare seed to him. He grows it and then distributes it in 1kg packets. “Farmers take the seeds on condition they bring some back,” he says. “They must return 2kg as proof they have cultivated it. Most give 1kg to other farmers so the cycle continues. In three years in Orissa, 2,000 farmers have received the seeds and 350 varieties have been distributed.”

These are not just “heritage” varieties grown for the sake of growing them, he says, they are vital for food security, culture and biodiversity. Landraces perform better in marginal environmental conditions than modern cultivars produced by selective breeding. Knowledge and availability of landraces will become increasingly important, he says, as climate change shifts rainfall patterns and makes extreme temperatures a more regular occurrence, and as modern agriculture comes to rely on ever fewer varieties and so becomes susceptible to large crop losses. Deb’s search for rice varieties began nearly 20 years ago in remote areas of West Bengal. These marginal areas, often dismissed as backward by urban and political elites, were home to many landraces, because farmers were mostly too poor to buy the agrochemicals needed to grow modern rice varieties.

The genetic variety and the quality of what they grew amazed him. “The landraces have been developed by unknown farmers over centuries. They are all based on careful observation of their properties...”

Not impressed with GM

Deb is not impressed by GM science. “Companies are spending billions on ‘gene mining’, or seeking specific genes. Yet after 60 years they still do not have one which can withstand a drought or flooding or sea water. But all of these characteristics are available in the landraces... ”

He prefers a living seed bank where varieties are grown every year. “The Indian seed bank has 65,000 varieties, but 90% of them are dead and will not germinate. ..They are useful for big companies because the genes are still good, but they are useless on a farm. I have a living seed bank. High-yielding crop varieties have resulted in the loss of numerous landraces possessing important genes. With the rapid disappearance of folk varieties, farmers have become entirely dependent on commercial seed suppliers for their crop…” he says.

“The collective knowledge about rice growing and diversity is still there but only in places which have not been industrialised. In a natural forest you can still find people who know hundreds of medicinal plants. But in a monocultural forest, people simply do not know the uses of plants… The collective memory is becoming eroded… ” He trains farmers and battles what he calls “developmentality”, a mental “virus” of the modern world which he says has led to the crisis in rural India. He calls for a zero-growth economy and a new appreciation of how indigenous societies around the world have interacted with nature.

“…My goal is to set up a living seed bank in every state in India and to train scientists as para-conservationists, so we can propagate and document all the landraces.”Guardian News & Media 2014

Source:  http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/race-to-build-a-living-seed-bank/article5806836.ece

Four districts categorised as climate change hotspots

The HinDu | T. NANDAKUMAR THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,  March 20, 2014

TOPICS

India

Kerala

environmental issues

climate change

Kerala severely threatened by climate change, says State Action Plan on Climate Change

Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki districts are climate change hotspots in Kerala, with a high degree of vulnerability to natural hazards like flood and drought and impact on biodiversity and human life.

The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) has classified Alappuzha and Palakkad as the most vulnerable districts. Palakkad is listed as very highly vulnerable because of the higher percentage of population relying on agriculture, a lower ranking in the human development index and higher social deprivation. Alappuzha has been included in the same category because of the network of environmentally sensitive wetlands, lagoons and sandy beaches. Idukki, Wayanad, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur have been listed as highly vulnerable. The two hilly districts are categorised as climate change hotspots because of the large area of dense forest cover and shola forest.

The degree of vulnerability of climate sensitive sectors like agriculture, fisheries and forests, tribal population and low ranking in the human development index were also considered in identifying the hotspots.

Kannur has been included in the high vulnerability list because of the extensive mangrove forests while Thiruvananthapuram makes it to the list because it has registered medium values in terms of all the indicators.

The SAPCC, due to be taken up for implementation this financial year, assesses that Kerala is severely threatened by climate change. The projected climate change scenario estimates that the atmospheric temperature across Kerala will rise by 2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050. The minimum surface temperature in the Western Ghats region may rise by 2 to 4.5 degrees Celsius. The number of rainy days is likely to decrease along the entire western coast including the Western Ghats. Also, it is projected that if the sea level rises by one metre, 169 sq km of the coastal region surrounding Kochi would be inundated.

Implementation

The Department of Environment and Climate Change is preparing to implement the SAPCC from this year, Director P. Sreekantan Nair told The Hindu. He said the programmes would be prioritised and implemented in a phased manner. “Discussions are on with NABARD, the funding agency identified by the Global Environment Fund (GEF). We are also trying to find other sources of funds.” Mr. Nair said a monitoring committee would be set up to oversee the implementation of the action plan.

The SAPCC report estimates that paddy production in Kerala would drop by six per cent with each degree rise in temperature. The document says changes in temperature and rainfall would be detrimental to thermo-sensitive crops like cardamom, coffee, tea and black pepper cultivated in the high ranges. The action plan recommends strategies focussing on climate-tailored agricultural management, integrated pest management, improved land use, organic farming, farm mechanisation, water use efficiency, weather forecasting, crop insurance and diversification of agriculture.

In the animal husbandry sector, the report warns that higher temperature and changing rainfall pattern could enhance the spread of vector borne diseases and macro parasites, besides leading to the emergence of new livestock diseases.

It estimates that heat stress and humidity variation could also have a significant association with bacterial, viral and other parasitic infections and animal diseases. Some of the viral diseases such as goat plague may also reappear while the frequency of incidence of mastitis and foot diseases among crossbred cows may increase, the document says.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/four-districts-categorised-as-climate-change-hotspots/article5801125.ece

Uttarakhand farmer’s seed saving movement holds promise

M. J. PRABU |March 19, 2014

Vijay Jardari . Photo: Special Arrangement

Jardhar village comprises of nearly 26 small hamlets in Uttarakhand. Like hundreds of villages in the country agriculture is a major occupation here.

But the village is known for more than just agriculture. It houses some of the country’s best and ‘lost’ ancient seed varieties.

This is thanks to Mr. Vijay Jardhari, a small farmer and founder of seed saving movement called Beej Bachao Andolan (seed savers movement), who has managed to save some hundreds of ancient seeds from different crops till date.

Collection

Presently, in his collection are about 350 varieties of paddy, eight varieties of wheat, four of barley, 220 varieties of kidney beans (rajma), eight of cowpea and 12 varieties of navrangi dhal. His unique seed saving movement is a big hit in the region.

The farmer is also credited with discovering an old tradition in Uttarakhand called Barahnaja (also called Bara anaaj in some places) meaning 12 grains/seeds.

Some of these are resistant to droughts, floods and pests, thus ensuring some output even at times of major distress or natural calamity.

“As a practice, after these 12 Barahnaja is harvested, the fields are left fallow for sometime and then rice or barnyard millet is grown. After this wheat is sown and the same procedure is repeated Thus a proper crop rotation is ensured,” says Mr. Jardhari.

But how did he get interested in this seed saving protection issues?

Initial trial

“I was into chemical farming initially and the yield did increase. But I was able to notice that the soil fertility was decreasing in the second year itself. This high intensive farming and the input costs can only go up gradually and not scale down.

“During the third year I found that the seeds planted from the previous harvest did not yield well and I harvested only a small quantity for seed requirement. These were hybrid seeds designed to break the chain of cultivation that has come through to us for hundreds of years,” he says.

Instinct

So instinctively he stopped chemical farming and started using hybrid seeds.

The village elders and his father seem to have admonished him for using new hybrid seeds because there were so many varieties of paddy and other crops once, where as now it is the same hybrid rice or wheat.

“This opened my eyes,” he says and he started going around the whole region in search of finding and collecting traditional seeds. He met several people in various villages trying to find out more about local seeds as well as older practices.

Intentions

“The modern agricultural cartel, in their intention to corporatise agriculture pushed for mono crops, mostly non food crop that were totally alien to this part. That is how, in these parts they pushed for Soya.

“So we had to jump in again to the rescue of farmers. We asked the government as to who will process the bean into oil or milk? And for whom was the rich protein and cash they were drumming about.

“The farmers after selling these to the rich far-away markets had to buy either low quality ones from the open market which were not cheap.

“So our save our seed campaign caught up with and farmers and farming was saved and old traditional seeds and practices returned including this Barahnaja,” says Mr. Vijay, with a smile of pride.

Change in mindset

Today Mr. Vijay has not only been able to change the mindset of people in Uttarakhand but also of the Government.

The agri dept professes about his Barahnaja system which is being popularised all over the region. Persons like Mr. Vijay Jardhari hold much promise for better agricultural practices in today's fast eroding farming sector.

To talk to Mr.Vijay Jardhari interested readers can contact him on mobile: 09411777758 and address Mr. Vijay Jardhari, Jardhar village, Tehri garhwal, Uttarakhand 249175

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/uttarakhand-farmers-seed-saving-movement-holds-promise/article5805565.ece?fb_action_ids=10152050318527879&fb_action_types=og.likes
.

Beneficial Bugs - friends of organic farmers

Source: Unknown 

South Africa’s ASA Stops Monsanto ‘Benefits of GM Crops’ Advert

Posted on Mar 18 2014 - 4:48am by Sustainable Pulse

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) of South Africa has today ordered Monsanto to withdraw its advertisement on Radio 702 with immediate effect, wherein Monsanto claims the benefits of GM crops. According to ASA, Monsanto’s claims were found to be unsubstantiated and misleading.

The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB) lodged a complaint to the ASA following an advertisement on Radio 702 by Monsanto wherein Monsanto claims that GM crops “enable us to produce more food sustainably whilst using fewer resources; provide a healthier environment by saving on pesticides; decrease greenhouse gas emissions and increase crop yields substantially.” The ACB was supported in its complaint by Ms Judith Taylor from Earthlife Africa.

Monsanto was given an opportunity by ASA to respond to the ACB’s complaint but was according to the ASA, only able to provide the ASA with links to documents on its website but was unable to provide, as it is required to in terms of South African law governing advertising, inputs from an independent and credible expert confirming the various studies that Monsanto relied upon showing the ostensible benefits of GM crops.

“We are elated with this decision. Monsanto has already been warned by the ASA as far back as 2007, that it needs to substantiate its claims from an independent and credible expert in the matter of GM Food/M Wells/ 8739 (18 June 2007) regarding its claims of the so called benefits of GM crops. However, it appears Monsanto does not have much regard for South African law as it is hell bent on disseminating false and misleading information to the South African public, “ said Mariam Mayet, Executive Director of the ACB.

The ASA has warned Monsanto that “it should ensure that it holds proper substantiation for its advertising claims” or risk attracting further sanctions.

View the release and download the full ruling from www.acbio.org.za

Source: http://sustainablepulse.com/2014/03/18/south-africas-asa-stops-monsanto-benefits-gm-crops-advert/#.UzQPuhqHR8o

India's rice warrior battles to build living seed bank as climate chaos looms

Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties

•   John Vidal |theguardian.com, Tuesday 18 March 2014 02.00 GMT                
• Jump to comments (28)  

Indian rice conservationist Debal Deb cultivates 920 varieties on 2.5 acres of land in the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha state. Photograph: The Gaia Foundation

Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste – rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had the aroma of mangoes or peanuts, tolerance for saltwater or medicinal value.

Back then, says the rice conservationist Debal Deb, India may have had more than 100,000 landraces, or local varieties. "Today there could be just 6,000, with fewer being grown every year. Every community had its own varieties. The rest are no longer cultivated and the knowledge of how to grow them will have been lost."

Deb, a plant scientist turned farmer, is on a mission not just to reintroduce the lost varieties but to improve agriculture for an age of climate change and scarcity. He is cultivating 920 rice varieties on just 2.5 acres in a forested area of the Niyamgiri hills, where the indigenous people last year managed to drive out the giant mining company Vedanta.

His seed bank, Vrihi, the Sanskrit word for rice, is growing fast as people bring rare seed to him. He grows it and then distributes it in 1kg packets. "Farmers take the seeds on condition they bring some back," he says. "They must return 2kg as proof they have cultivated it. Most give 1kg to other farmers so the cycle continues. In three years in Orissa, 2,000 farmers have received the seeds and 350 varieties have been distributed."

These are not just "heritage" varieties grown for the sake of growing them, he says, they are vital for food security, culture and biodiversity. Landraces perform better in marginal environmental conditions than modern cultivars produced by selective breeding. Knowledge and availability of landraces will become increasingly important, he says, as climate change shifts rainfall patterns and makes extreme temperatures a more regular occurrence, and as modern agriculture comes to rely on ever fewer varieties and so becomes susceptible to large crop losses.

Deb's search for rice varieties began nearly 20 years ago in remote areas of West Bengal largely populated by indigenous people. These marginal areas, often dismissed as backward by urban and political elites, were home to many landraces, because farmers were mostly too poor to buy the agrochemicals needed to grow modern rice varieties.

The genetic variety and the quality of what they grew amazed him. "The landraces have been developed by unknown farmers over centuries. They are all based on careful observation of their properties. One of the main problems for marginal farmers is drought.

"We have developed two varieties of drought-tolerant seeds. In addition, we have six varieties of salt-tolerant rice which we have reintroduced into the Sunderbans. They were the only varieties to survive when cyclone Aila struck the region in May 2009.

Deb, who was a Fulbright scholar and who has done post-doctoral ecology work at the University of California at Berkeley, is not impressed by GM science or hybrid rice growing. "Companies are spending billions on 'gene mining', or seeking specific genes. Yet after 60 years they still do not have one which can withstand a drought or flooding or sea water. But all of these characteristics are available in the landraces. I have varieties of rice that can grow and live for months in 12ft-deep water. There are varieties with amazing medicinal properties. The tribals know about certain dark-grained rice that give high levels of antioxidants and can prevent cancers."

He prefers a living seed bank where varieties are grown every year. "The Indian seed bank has 65,000 varieties, but 90% of them are dead and will not germinate … They are useful for big companies because the genes are still good, but they are useless on a farm. I have a living seed bank.

"High-yielding crop varieties have resulted in the loss of numerous landraces possessing important genes. With the rapid disappearance of folk varieties, farmers have become entirely dependent on commercial seed suppliers for their crop. Seeds used to be a precious gift to relatives and friends. Because crop seeds were traditionally to be belong to the community, there was no scope for commercial appropriation," he says.

Deb accuses large seed companies of trying to steal landraces. "They seem very interested in one, a three-grain rice. We have the last variety. We also have the last double grain rices. I was offered 15,000 rupees [$240] for just a handful. I just kicked the man out. Another man tried to steal some and a third tried bribes. One company man disguised himself as a farmer. I kicked him out, too."

He now keeps the rice seeds locked in a safe house, and the varieties are identified only by a number. "If they got hold of, say, three-grain rice, they would make millions. Would they share the benefits with the community who developed it? I doubt it. They would patent it. Once it became a proprietorial variety no one else would be allowed to save it. You would have to buy it each year.

"The collective knowledge about rice growing and diversity is still there but only in places which have not been industrialised. In a natural forest you can still find people who know hundreds of medicinal plants. But in a monocultural forest, people simply do not know the uses of plants. The diversity is lost. The collective memory is becoming eroded. People are being educated to think that anything traditional is bad."

He blames India's green revolution for the loss of genetic diversity and biodiversity. The development in the 1960s and 70s of new high-yield varieties of grain which needed synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and more water is popularly said to have ended famines, but for Deb it was an ecological and cultural disaster for which we are paying now.

He trains farmers and battles what he calls "developmentality", a mental "virus" of the modern world which he says has produced a collective mindlessness in India's elite and led to the crisis in rural India. He calls for a zero-growth economy and a new appreciation of how indigenous societies around the world have interacted with nature.

"I have nothing. I live by a bit of teaching. I have no institution behind me and I am limited only by the small amount of land that I have and the little money I have for research. My goal is to set up a living seed bank in every state in India and to train scientists as para-conservationists, so we can propagate and document all the landraces."


Source: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/mar/18/india-rice-warrior-living-seed-bank

A farmer who has made a difference

S & T » AGRICULTURE | M. J. PRABU | March 18, 2014

The HinduJai Prakash Singh. Photo: Special Arrangement

TOPICS

science and technology

agricultural research and technology

Jai Prakash Singh has won many awards for his work to preserve native seeds

A Varanasi farmer, Jai Prakash Singh, is a proud recipient of three awards — two from former Presidents in 2002 and 2009, and the Plant Genome award from the government for his outstanding role in preserving hundreds of native seed varieties.

The farmer has to his credit about 460 paddy, 120 wheat, 30 pulse and four mustard varieties, many of which have been approved by the government to be used by other growers.

They include a wheat variety that yields more than seven tonnes from a hectare and a long-duration paddy variety that can be harvested in 130 days (long-duration paddy generally takes about 150 to 160 days to harvest). Many agriculture and research institutions across the country have conducted research on his findings.

The farmer distributes his seeds and gets a signed document from buyers saying they will sell the seeds at the same price to others.

“This is an endeavour on my part to ensure that seeds are available at an affordable price to many small and poor farmers,” he says.

‘More needs to be done’

Mr. Prakash, however, is not happy with the government’s attitude towards native seed preservation.

“The government must realise that preserving and using native seeds are the hope of our country’s future if it is serious about overcoming food shortage. The importance given to GM seeds and the cost of their cultivation make me wonder if all my work in the last 25 years was worth it.”

Mr. Prakash recently participated in a National Seed Saviours exhibition in New Delhi where hundreds of native seeds from different parts of the country were exhibited.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/a-farmer-who-has-made-a-difference/article5797362.ece

France Stands Up to Monsanto, Bans Seed Giant’s GMO Corn

John Deike | March 17, 2014 5:30 pm | Comments

On Saturday, France’s agriculture ministry temporarily banned the sale, use and cultivation of Monsanto’s MON 810 genetically engineered (GE) corn—the only variety that had been authorized in the European Union (EU).

Genetically engineered corn is facing fierce resistant from both French environmentalists and country officials. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock

The French government, which argues GE crops present environmental risks, kept pushing to institute the new ban even after the country’s highest court struck down similar measures in the past, according to Reuters. 

“France’s reinstatement of its previous ban of Monsanto’s controversial genetically engineered crop … is another encouraging sign that the biotech industry’s iron grip on foreign government’s is slipping and that resistance to these flawed products is continuing to take hold,” said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!.

The decision was strategically timed to block the seasonal planting of Monsanto’s corn by French farmers before a draft law is debated on April 10, which is aimed at banning the cultivation of foods made with genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

“The sale, use and cultivation of varieties of [Monsanto's corn seed] … is banned in the country until the adoption, on the one hand, of a final decision, and secondly, of European Union community action,” a French decree stated.

The annual planting of corn in France typically gets under way in the second half of March.

The current Socialist government, like its conservative predecessor, has repeatedly opposed the growing of GMO crops in light of public suspicion and widespread protests from environmental groups. 

Ongoing differences between EU countries resurfaced in February when they failed to agree on whether to approve another type of GE corn (developed by DuPont and Dow Chemical), leaving the possibility open for the EU Commission to approve its cultivation.

France is trying to gain support to overhaul the EU rules.

“As more nations reject Monsanto’s dangerous technology, the U.S. government is finding itself increasingly alone in failing to protect cropland and farmers here,” saidMichele Simon, JD, MPH, president of Eat Drink Politics. ”The U.S. should follow France’s lead in placing people over profits.”

Source: http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/17/france-monsanto-ban-gmo-corn/