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Cotton
Divided colours of cotton
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2001
PRABHANJAN VERMAIt is a battle half-won by both the warring parties. The government has decided to go for another round of field trial of the controversial genetically modified (gm) cotton, known as Bt cotton before deciding in favour of its commercialisation. The commercialisation is being pursued by the Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company Ltd (mahyco). The company is partially owned by biotech giant Monsanto.
For the sake of caution
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2001
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.
Organic cotton
Issue Date: May 15, 2001
Cotton, grown on just five per cent of Indian agricultural land, consumes more than 50 per cent of the total pesticides used in India. Cotton gowers rely heavily on pesticides to control insects, diseases weeds and growth regulators. The intensive use of pesticides endangers human health as well as soil health, agro-ecology, leads to reduced profits for the farmers and creates an avoidable monoculture. Organic cotton is the solution.
Fabric of nature
Issue Date: Feb 15, 2001
Victory against all odds
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2000
anti-dumping duties imposed on India by the European Union (eu) have been declared inconsistent with free trade rules, by the World Trade Organisation (wto). Starting from 1997, eu had imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of cotton bed linen from Egypt, Pakistan and India. "eu should formulate its trade policies in accordance with its obligation," says wto .
Transgenic cotton trials
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2000
madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have started large-scale evaluation of genetically modified Bacillus thuringiensis (b t ) cotton plants, despite the Union government still finalising the protocol for doing so. Both the states got consent from the genetic engineering approval committee.
Trial or error?
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2000
the Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Com-pany ( mahyco ) has been permitted to undertake large-scale field trials and generate environmental safety data on transgenic cotton in various agro-climatic regions of the country. This was stated in an official release from the Union ministry of environment and forests ( mef ).
The colour of fashion
Issue Date: Feb 15, 2000
Cotton growers lose
Issue Date: Nov 30, 1999
cotton production in Punjab is likely to suffer if farmers do not take remedial measures against whitefly pests that were detected recently. Regular surveys carried out by entomologists of the Punjab Agriculture University (pau) have revealed a high build-up of whitefly pests in cotton in the state.
