More and more water

A third factor has led to the current debility of soils in India: irrigation. That is to say, water over-use. To feed the rice-wheat mentality, net irrigated area rose from 20.8 million ha in 1950 to 53.5 million ha in 1995-1996. Fed on irrigation, the agricultural area grew from a mere 20.8 per cent in 1966-1967 to 42.4 per cent of the 120 million ha of cultivated land in the country by 1997-1998. Canals began to weave their way through the land, bringing subsidised water right up to the farm-gate.

More and more loss

The domino effect of bad policy-making and its fallout -- unsustainable practice -- has dwindled the nutrient quality of soils in more than the obvious ways. Apart from micronutrient loss, Indian soils already weak in carbon content are today even more incapable of acting as sequesters of carbon and so reducing global warming potential.

Reclaiming Simple Clod

Soils are a very slow renewable resource. To reclaim them requires, above all, a long-term plan. With falling productivity, the realisation has sunk in that soils cannot be blindly mined, and that humans cannot just plough through the ecology they interact with.

Where have all the sparrows gone?

When did you last spot a house sparrow (Passer domesticus) in your house? Chances are, quite a while ago. These once-common birds are becoming a rarity, in India and other parts of the world. The Royal Society for Protection of Birds (rspb), uk, recently added the house sparrow to its Red List (for rapidly declining bird populations, which pose global conservation concern).

More and more urea

It is ironic that while India ranks third in fertiliser use worldwide, it ranks 14 and 16 respectively in the production of rice and wheat. It is even more ironic that India's fertiliser policy ensures precisely such a result.

In Short

RIGHTS ISSUE: A patent on atta chakkis (flour mills). It sure was unexpected. But it's been granted. The latest victim of the patent rights regime is the Asian traditional knowledge of producing atta. The US patent office has given patent rights to Nebraska-based ConAgra Inc for the "method for producing an atta flour". Significantly, the patent application filed by ConAgra specifies that "the present invention relates to a method of producing Asian breads such as chapati and roti."

Regressive move

There is disappointment down under over the us farm bill which has recently become a law. The us bill will provide new subsidies for domestic farmers over the next decade. It raises subsidy rates for soyabean, wheat, corn, cotton and barley.

With IT villages

Parbatbhai was ecstatic when an American company sought the manufacturing licence of his latest innovation -- a foot-operated spray pump -- after getting to know of it on the Internet. Unlike traditional spray pumps, his simple machine is lighter, cheaper and, most importantly, does not spill pesticide while spraying.

UNITED NATIONS

Over the next 50 years, harvests of staple crops like rice, maize and wheat may be reduced by one- third due to global warming. This has been revealed by a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report published recently.

For the sake of caution

Caution is good but it should not take the place of good policy making. By refusing environmental clearance to genetically modified cotton from Monsanto, the government of India has treaded the path of caution but not necessarily the path of good science and good policy. This should also not be viewed as a victory for the opponents of genetically modified crops for sooner or later their cultivation will begin. But the decision has given rise to three issues.