The 2023 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor, a flagship publication of AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Food Policy Research Institute, provides an overview of trade in agriculture in Africa, including analysis of short- and long-term trends and drivers behind Africa’s global trade, intra-African trade, and trade within Africa’s regional economic communities. The …
Many species of predators and crop-friendly birds have migrated from cotton fields in Pakistan due to the excessive use of pesticide. Starling, quail, dove, fruit beets, house crow, blue rock pigeon, nightingale, sparrow and woodpecker are some of the bird species that have deserted the Pakistani cotton fields. This is …
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 …
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 …
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 …
there is a growing demand for organic cotton in various parts of the world. Grown without the use of synthetic chemical fertilisers and pesticides that conventional cotton cultivation is still dependent upon, organic cotton is gaining wider recognition than ever before. Global production of organic cotton increased from 8,250 tonnes …
The recent textile policy draft prepared by the Union ministry of textiles is reported to have discouraged the cultivation of coloured cotton. This, despite the strong recommendation of the Sathyam committee set up by the ministry to suggest changes in the 1985 textile policy. The committee had said that coloured …
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 …
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. The decision for large-scale trials has been taken in the …
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 ). Permission …
fashion czar Giorgio Armani has already done it. Gap and Nike are doing it. And the Dutch-based clothing house C&A; is hoping to do it. Green fashion is finally coming of age. Environmental designer clothes no longer seems like a contradiction. And while designers stitch what Armani calls "the eco-compatible …
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. Scientists have advised …
in india, cotton is grown in about 2.60 lakh hectares of land. This is equivalent to approximately 35 per cent of the gross cultivated area. Yet, nearly 50 per cent of the total pesticidal consumption is in cotton farming alone. Thus, the extent of damage that pests and diseases can …
indian scientists have developed transgenic cotton varieties, breaking the monopoly of us -based company Monsanto. The seeds contain the Bt gene derived from widely found bacteria called bacillus thuringiensis . They are capable of combating the attack of the dreaded American bollworm pest that has been taking a heavy toll …
Cotton is very vulnerable to pests. "Out of the Rs 2,400 crore worth of pesticides used in India, Rs 1500-1600 crore is spent on cotton. About Rs 1000-1100 crore are used for bollworm alone,' says P K Ghosh, adviser to the Union government's department of biotechnology. The American bollworm ( …
Cotton farmers can look forward to better days, though somewhat bela- tedly. A new technology mission with an outlay of about Rs 700 crore for five years is to be launched by the Government of India. The mission aims at improving the productivity of the crop from the existing 265 …
Pakistan will hold talks with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on taxes slapped by the European Union (EU) on unbleached cotton exports. Pakistan's exports of cotton fabrics have decreased sharply with the imposition of anti-dumping duty. But Pakistan has little hope that the WTO will go against the EU, which …
WATER-LOGGING in northern India has caused massive decline in the area under cotton cultivation. The production of cotton in Punjab and Haryana has been the worst affected, said the North India Cotton Association. But the area under cotton in the Gangangar tracts in Rajasthan has not shrunk. According to estimates, …
The National Human Rights Com-mission (NHRC) has asked the Andhra Pradesh government to submit a report regarding mass suicides by cotton farmers in the state. Recently, P Pullarao, a resident of Polavaram, Andhra Pradesh, and also an agriculturist, had lodged a complaint to NHRC about suffering of farmers in the …
