A REPORT commissioned by the Union environment and forests ministry warns the Centre against going ahead with 24 hydropower projects planned on the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river systems in Uttarakhand. The projects would destroy 22 per cent of the state’s forestland and affect the unique Himalayan ecology along one-third of lengths of the two main tributaries of the Ganga, states the report prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun.

THE Rajasthan government has initiated an inquiry into the field trials of transgenic mustard conducted without due supervision. The state’s Department of Environment has called a meeting on April 2 to find out how the field trials were undertaken without the knowledge of the State Biotechnology Coordination Committee (SBCC), tasked with monitoring such field trials to check GM contamination.

Andhra Pradesh Foods, a state government enterprise, is ramping up its fortified food production capacity. It provides ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods like upma mix, sweet porridge and khichdi mix, fortified with iron, zinc and other vitamins, to infants and pregnant and lactating women under the Centre’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

The Karnataka Biodiversity Board (KBB) has washed its hands of the Bt brinjal biopiracy controversy, saying the matter comes under the purview of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). Bt brinjal made headlines when it was found that Mahyco, partner of US biotech giant Monsanto,  had developed Bt brinjal using 12 indigenous varieties of the vegetable, accessed from various states, including Karnataka. These indigenous brinjal varieties were used without approval, which is a violation of the Biodiversity Act of 2002.

Activists have challenged the Union environment ministry’s in-principle clearance to the proposed 300 MW hydroelectric project on the Alaknanda river before the National Green Tribunal. The project in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand is proposed three km downstream of the Hindu pilgrimage centre Badrinath.

What is the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT)?

In the lush forested uplands of Koraput, Domu Matpadia, a Paraja tribeswoman, is coming face to face with modern farm technology. A representative of Charoen Pokphand, a Thai agribusiness multinational, is telling her how to grow its hybrid maize seeds that the state government has given her free along with a kit of fertiliser and pesticide. The seeds that she cradles in her palm with wonder are the key to a plan that Odisha has drawn up to get its farmers to give up their traditional rice cultivation in the uplands and take to hybrid maize instead to boost income.

Acheja, a small farming village in Gautam Budh Nagar district in western Uttar Pradesh, had never seen such a large congregation as it did on May 12. The venue was a rice mill. Its verandah was crammed with farmers in white kurta pyjamas and Gandhi caps. They were discussing the recent violence in the area in high-pitched voices. Once in a while, the crowd shouted: “Jab tak dukhi kisan rahega, dharti par toofan rahega (As long as farmers are unhappy, the earth will be in turmoil).”

Call it the Safal model. For close to 25 years, a large chunk of households in the National Capital Region have had access to fresh fruits and vegetables at affordable prices—at rates much lower than what the local vegetable and fruits market or the handcart vendor would charge. This was made possible by standing the concept of buying on its head. Instead of the farmer coming all the way to markets where the middleman would fleece him and where he had to pay steep taxes, the market went to his doorstep. As a result, customers could get the fresh products daily, making the farm-to-fork concept a reality long before retail chains began doing so in the metros. It is the Safal model that these chains also employ.

An international opinion tribunal, which probes and gives judgements relating to human rights violations, has indicted six transnational companies after a four-day public hearing held in Bengaluru this month.

Many poor in the rural areas are at the risk of being excluded from the food security net if the results of the ongoing Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC-2011) are implemented.

Do public institutions need permission to access biological resources for genetic manipulation? The question has become critical in the wake of a complaint filed over accessing the country’s brinjal biodiversity for research and its eventual commercialisation. The complaint has forced the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) to find an answer for this vexed question.

There is a demand to shift agriculture from the State List to the Concurrent List. Is this a good move?

Contract farming is charting a rapid growth trajectory in India. Within a decade, it has grown by about 15 per cent. Almost 4,000 hectares are annually added to the area under this farming arrangement. While industry is aggressively making forays into this field, farmer leaders fear exploitation.

Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, this year is going to witness a new movement. Activists belonging to a non-profit, Ekta Parishad, will undertake a Jan Satyagraha Samwad Yatra to highlight the ongoing land and livelihood struggles across the country.

Agriculture experts, industry representatives and the Union minister of state for food and consumer affairs on Thursday called for reforms in the agriculture sector to improve rural economy. They had gathered for an agriculture leadership summit on the theme 'policy reforms for farm growth'.

FEW laws have been embraced as wholeheartedly by industry as BRAI or the Biotech Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011. Yet to be introduced in Lok Sabha, following a last-minute hitch, the proposed law has received the full support of the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE) and other leading organisations that campaign for the promotion of biotechnology primarily for one reason: a single-window mechanism that will streamline the regulatory processes.

"National Biodiversity Authority has received a complaint from Environment Support Group on alleged violation by Monsanto and their collaborators for accessing and using the local brinjal varieties for development of Bt brinjal."       —— Jayanthi Natarajan Union Minister of Environment and Forests

Members of Parliament cornered Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan in the Rajya Sabha this week over bio-piracy issue of Bt brinjal asking her what action was being taken against the alleged violators.

Madhya Pradesh has opted for the technologically most sophisticated—and costliest—method for revamping its public distribution system (PDS). It is one of a handful of states that is trying to ensure that subsidised food reaches the segment it is meant for, the poorest of the population or those below the poverty line (BPL). But the route it has taken is different from the rest and marks a couple of firsts in the efforts to streamline the system.

A FARMER was killed and about 30 were injured on August 2 when police lathicharged farmers opposing land acquisition by the state for a power project in Punjab’s Mansa district. Private company Indiabulls Power Limited is planning to set up a 1,320 MW thermal power project on 357 hectares (ha) belonging to four villages.

A controversy has sparked between non-profit Greenpeace and the Indian Association of Biotech led Enterprise–Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG) over the use of glyphosate in the country.

NANDAN Nilekani has just submitted his report on how the Centre should give direct fertiliser subsidy to farmers, but Odisha has already rolled out a scheme to reimburse maize farmers their cost of fertiliser. This will benefit about 45,000 farmers picked for a special maize scheme.

Three days after violent clashes broke out between police personnel and farmers in Bhatta and Parsol villages in Greater Noida near Delhi, the residents of the villages were under virtual house arrest. The two adjoining villages in Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh was cordoned off by police personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and the Rapid Action Force (RAF); media-persons were not allowed to enter the villages. Three fire-tenders lined the entrance of the villages. One tender was being used to douse flames in a charred building.

GRAIN traders along with farmers are looking forward to the resumption of wheat exports after a gap of four years as India heads for record production of the grain. India, the biggest wheat producer after China, had banned the crop’s export in 2007 to ensure food security. In the last week of March, minister of state for agriculture Arun Yadav hinted that the government may lift the ban on wheat exports and a decision is expected by April-end or May.

THE Central Potato Research Institute conducted field trial for genetically modified potato at its Jalandhar research station between October 2010 and February 2011. But the Punjab government failed to monitor it.

A LOOMING food crisis in the world and high food inflation rates at home made Pranab Mukherjee’s proposals to boost agriculture in his 2011 budget more keenly watched than usual. These are factors that clearly weighed with the finance minister who repeatedly said that his principal concern this year has been the continuing high food prices. The squeeze on the consumer who did not benefit from the seasonal fall in prices was a recurring theme in his speech.

THE government should offer assured income to farmers and shield them from erratic weather conditions. These are a few of the demands of farmers’ groups from the Union Budget 2011-12, which will be tabled in February-end.

It came to them as a small business proposal. About 10,000 farmers in the semi-arid Shekhawati region on the edge of Thar desert turned it into a fortune spinner and have become major organic farmers in Rajasthan.

A long queue outside the Cooperative Society shop in Dhanav village in Bundi district in Rajasthan indicated it was a busy day. Friendly banter over bidhis was interspersed with agitated discussions over urea prices.

KERALA has challenged the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee’s (GEAC) decision to allow open field trials of genetically modified (GM) rubber in the state. GEAC, the country’s apex body that approves release of GM crops, had given a go-ahead to the Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) to carry out the trials in Chetchackal, Thombikandom in Kottayam.

A BACTERIUM, which the biotech industry uses as a vehicle to insert foreign genes in plants, can alter the genetic makeup of other life forms like fungi in the environment, shows a research by UK scientists. This is a way, apart from cross pollination, modified genes could escape into the environment, said the researchers. They call for considering the finding during the risk assessment of bacteria-mediated genetically modified (GM) plants.

IN AN unprecedented step, Rajasthan has entered into memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with seven biotech seed firms, two of them among the largest in the world, to tone up its agriculture. It signals a fundamental shift in the way farming operates in India by giving private companies access to the state’s research facilities to test and market their hybrid seeds and other technologies.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has certified the controversial rice variety PAU-201 as fit for human consumption.

STUDENTS at SMS Institute of Technology in Lucknow are desperately waiting for mechanical engineering professor Bharat Raj Singh—to see his motorbike that runs on air.

A DRUG-RESISTANT bacteria dubbed superbug has triggered a debate. A gene—New Delhi metallo-beta lactamase (NDM 1)— transforms some bacteria found in the gut, like Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, into superbugs.

THE British Food Standard Agency (FSA) has been relieved of its task to decide what is healthy and what is not.

RTI activist Amit B Jethava, president of Gir Nature Youth Club, was shot dead by two armed assailants on July 20 night outside the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad.

OVER the next six months, 22 information commissioners, including 11 state chief information commissioners (SCICs), would retire.

Tigers from Panna National Park in Madhya Pradesh disappeared because they wandered out of the park and got poached.

THE government has raised the minimum support prices for pulses by up to Rs 700. It is a 15-30 per cent increase over the previous year.

VILLAGES on the border of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab are protesting an under-construction thermal power plant in Solan district.

THE Union agriculture ministry will redraft the seed bill following complaints by MPs, states and farmer groups. Their main grouse is that the bill, which aims to regulate the quality of seeds, does not monitor their prices, crucial for farmers.

radiation scientists recovered pieces of radioactive material, Cobalt-60, from the Mayapuri scrap market in Delhi early April after eight persons complained of radiation sickness. The victims suffered burn-like injuries and extreme low blood count, and were hospitalized in intensive care.

a ban on growing trees, installing borewells and digging ponds on farms is giving sleepless nights to residents of 204 villages of Punjab. The ban is in view of a 610 km gas pipeline that would pass through the farms in three districts—Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ropar. Digging work has started. The Dadri-Bawana-Nangal pipeline of the Gas Authority of India Limited (gail) is meant to supply gas to Punjab and Haryana.
   

Farmers  in Punjab reported low wheat yield this year. Even though the state agriculture machinery sold them certified seeds, not all seeds germinated, several farmers from Ferozepur district told Down To Earth (dte). They said the seeds were spurious.