India gets ready for banana war

IT’S yellow, sweet, large, uniformly sized and firmly textured. For almost everyone the Cavendish variety is the banana. But it was not so until the 1950s when a fungus knocked out its predecessor, Gros Michel, the sweetest variety known so far. The Cavendish, once a littleknown Vietnamese variety, successfully resisted the virus and became the most widely cultivated and traded banana across the world. But towards early 1990s, a virulent strain of the fungus emerged. Called Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, it has destroyed Cavendish plantations in major banana exporting countries in Asia, including China, The Philippines, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Costly silence

Goats give good returns only as long as fodder is free. Unlike cattle that are fed crop and crop residue, goats and sheep graze in wasteland, common grazing land and forests. In western Rajasthan, where degrading farm land and feed shortage forced people to abandon farming and cattle and turn to goats, pressure on grazing areas is showing.

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OIL PALM PLANT INVASION Philippines is promoting agrofuels as a way to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Thousands of hectares have been set aside in the Palawan Island, a part of UNESCO’s recognised biosphere reserve, for oil palm and jatropha. A project by Agumil Philippines Inc., a joint venture between Filipino and Malaysian investors, has already started cultivating oil palms. The state-owned LandBank is backing it.

Homeless hilsa

At Chandpur, about 150 km south of Dhaka, Anisur Rahman has a scientific explanation for the predicament of fisher people like Samaad.

Cultural icon

In Bangladesh, journalist Shankarlal Das recounts that hilsa could be had for a taka some 40 years ago. “During monsoons my father would come home dangling a hilsa from both hands. Mother would then take over.

Cotton exports deferred

INDIAN government’s policy to regulate cotton exports to make it available for the domestic textile industry may affect farmers.

Bee farms to shops

The journey of honey from bee farms to breakfast tables has become complex with time. From wild honey gatherers, honey supply has passed into the hands of cooperatives of individual beekeepers and then to big companies.

Chinese honey route

Of late, honey is being associated with shady dealings, crime, and and a thriving illegal trade spanning the globe. One may wonder why honey, a natural product, is shipped illegally. The reasons become clear if one considers the stringent food safety regulations in Western countries and questionable beekeeping practices in the countries that produce and export the natural sweetener. The first whistle blower

Natural and pure?

The one kg jar of honey on Sangeeta Das’s kitchen shelf has many uses. Every morning she takes out a small quantity and puts it on the breakfast table. Her husband, Indranil, a media executive, likes a little bit of honey on his toast and the couple’s three-year-old son has spoonfuls. In the evenings, Sangeeta stirs a spoonful of honey into a glass of lukewarm water mixed with lemon juice and drinks it for weight control. She also uses honey in combination with basil (tulsi) and ginger juice as cough remedy. Sangeeta’s fondness for honey holds true for most Indians who regard it as a health food that can rejuvenate the elderly and boost immunity of infants.

What beekeepers use

“We use only Chinese strips. We do not know what it contains but it is the most effective,” says Lal Bahadur of Etah district of Uttar Pradesh when asked why he does not use formic and oxalic acid scientists recommend.