Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Nayar river is vanishing - a yatra reveals conservation goes beyond science and policy" appearing in ‘The Down To Earth’ dated 03.06.2025. The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Nayar …
The Indian Society for Cotton Improvement (ISCI) has recently released a comprehensive book on "Bt Cotton Questions & Answers" authored by Dr. K R Kranthi, Director of the ICAR's Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, India. The book has hundred questions on Bt cotton, time and again raised by …
To disseminate Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM) strategies, 10 villages were adopted in Muktsar district of Punjab during 2008 and 2009. Two villages were kept as check (Non-IRM) for comparing the impact of IRM strategies on the major insect pests and natural enemies in Bt cotton arthropod fauna.
An open letter sent by nearly a hundred Indian scientists to the Supreme Court. They write in support of the report of the Supreme Court's Technical Expert Committee (TEC) calling for a 10 year moratorium on GM field trials while regulation is put in order. The scientists come from across …
The widespread use of Bt crops reduces the outbreaks of certain targeted pests and the need for insecticide use, leading to enhanced biocontrol of other potential pest species in the Bt crops; neighbouring non-Bt crops may also benefit.
Despite widespread adoption of genetically modified crops in many countries, heated controversies about their advantages and disadvantages continue. Especially for developing countries, there are concerns that genetically modified crops fail to benefit smallholder farmers and contribute to social and economic hardship. Many economic studies contradict this view, but most of …
Willem Takken and colleagues argue for the expansion of insecticide monotherapy in malaria control by taking lessons from agriculture and including more sustainable integrated vector management strategies.
SHILLONG: The Northeastern States of the country are going to get Rs 100 crore within this year from the Agriculture Ministry for supporting various activities relating to rice cultivation under the National Food Security Mission (NFSM). All the eight Northeastern States including Sikkim are being covered under NFSM-rice this year. …
Pakistan is ranked fourth among the top five cotton-producing countries in the world. About 70–80% of the cultivated area is under Bt cotton in Pakistan. Bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera) is the major pest of cotton. It causes 31.73– 36.45% yield losses and these are reduced by heavy pesticide application. There has …
AHMEDABAD: In a unique initiative the agriculture department will distribute special Tricho-cards' for free amongst farmers in the state. A special pest control laboratory in sector-15 in Gandhinagar will be the nodal agency in the effort. With practically no biological side-effects, tricho-cards are an efficient way of controlling pests in …
URUMQI - Forestry scientists have released 800,000 wasps into Asia's largest wild fruit forest this summer, hoping they will kill many of the beetles threatening it. "It's the fourth time we have released parasitic wasps to destroy the insects eating the apple trees. The measure has so far proved very …
The subject of the ‘mixed bag’, which proposes non-Bt-cotton seeds be mixed with Bt-cotton seeds in the same bag, has raised an interesting debate in this journal. It was flagged by Hanur, who recommended that the mixed bag should be allowed in India. He made this proposal pointing out that …
Nature is kind enough to create human beings after all its other creation so that we can enjoy and live happily and easily. But owing to our memory and thinking capacities, we became selfish and lazy and wanted to have everything for ourselves. Due to our excessive greed, we have …
Farmers Diary - Recalling biodiversity, farming the Agnihotra way. Homa farming is a system which comes from ancient science of Vedas. Homa is a Sanskrit word used here synonymously with Yajnya. Yajnya is the technical term from the Vedic science of bio energy denoting the process of removing the toxic …
Owls are natural predators of rodents, of which seven species are agriculturally important pests. Conserving owls will not only result in better rodent control preventing huge crop losses, but will also prevent indiscriminate chemical use, thus preserving the ecological diversity. Educational programs will go a long way in achieving this.
The subject of the ‘mixed bag’, which proposes non-Bt-cotton seeds be mixed with Bt-cotton seeds in the same bag, has raised an interesting debate in this journal. It was flagged by Hanur, who recommended that the mixed bag should be allowed in India. He made this proposal pointing out that …
Transgenes encoding for insecticidal crystal (Cry) proteins from the soil-dwelling bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis have been widely introduced into Genetically Modified (GM) crops to confer protection against insect pests. Concern that these transgenes may also harm beneficial or otherwise valued insects (so-called Non Target Organisms, NTOs) represents a major element of …
