The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
Does putting full sets of clinical trial data in the public domain affect a company's commercial interest? It might. But does the public interest not outweigh this? Yes, because if the product is useless or harmful, there should be no commerce in it in the first place. The scientific study …
Water (either from the sky or the irrigation canal) is often a key factor in determining crop yields, squeezing more crop out of the same drop will be central to one of the biggest challenges of this century: sustainably feeding a population of perhaps 9 billion people in a climate-changed …
when genetically modified (gm) plants were introduced in 1996, some researchers said pests were too smart to be controlled and would eventually develop resistance. There is now evidence that the cotton pest, bollworm, has done this in less then a decade. Researchers from the University of Arizona have found resistant …
Despite objections from environmental and consumer groups, Brazil has authorized commercial use of two varieties of genetically modified (gm) corn. On February 12, the National Biosecurity Council, comprising 11 cabinet ministers, gave the final clearance for planting and sale of the gm corn varieties in the country. The varieties are …
the Supreme Court of India said trials of genetically engineered crops may resume. On February 13, a division bench asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (geac) to allow gm field trials, asking the agency to follow biosafety guidelines. The court was responding to a petition by anti- gm activist Aruna …
When economist Carl Pray heard about plans for the first international assessment of agricultural research, a gold standard sprang to mind: the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But things didn't turn out the way he expected.
For the past three decades, more investment has been made for crop technology than for building infrastructure to store and market food products. The recent loan waiver for indebted farmers
Thanks to pesticide usage falling with Bt cotton, another pest is assuming menacing proportions. Woes of the cotton growers seem to be unending. While the threat of annihilation of their crops from the dreaded American Bollworm has abated thanks largely to the availability of pest-protected transgenic Bt-cotton hybrids, another pest …
Agricultural technologies, unlike many other technologies, have a major impact on human beings and other life forms. This is because of the huge magnitude of this human activity
Staff members of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) are carrying out research on Bt brinjal to study its impact on the soil, Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugham said on Thursday. Research is being conducted at seven agricultural universities in India on the basis of instructions from the Centre, the …
over plastic ban: A group of plastic bag manufacturers and recyclers in the US state of California has filed a lawsuit against the Oakland city authorities over a ban on plastic shopping bags. The Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling has filed the lawsuit at the Superior Court in Oakland …
The Tamil Nadu Agricutlural University (TNAU) has denied that its trial on Bt brinjal is based on an MoU or an agreement with private seed companies like Monsanto and Mahyco. Reacting to the remarks mady by Selvam, secretary, Erode Organic Farmers Collective, the TNAU said Genetically Engineered (GE) trials were …
Even as the issues of Genetically Engineered (GE) paddy crop raised at Alandurai village here last year are still fresh in the minds of farmers and environmentalists, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has came in for severe criticism for raising Bt Brinjal using the GE technology in its premises on …
THE country's best known secret on genetically modified (GM) crop has finally tumbled out of the closet. The government has been mute witness to the fact that two-thirds of the cotton produced in the country, the world's second largest raw cotton producer
Even as life science companies in seed business and vocal lobbyists for pro-genetically modified (GM) crops combine to make propagandist noises about the goodness of the technology and rapid spread of area under GM crops worldwide comes the news that pests are slowly developing resistance to transgenic crops. Currently, corn …
India has overtaken the US to become the second largest cotton producing country in the world, after China, a study by International Service For the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Application(ISAAA) said. India, which was having one of the lowest cotton yields in the world, has become a net cotton exporter, potentially …
Total global acreage increases to 114.3 m hectares New Delhi, Feb. 18 India has the fifth largest area cultivated under genetically modified (GM) crops. According to worldwide data compiled by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), the total acreage planted under all GM crops amounted to …
Genetically modified Bt Cotton acreage in the country rose 63 per cent to 6.2 million hectares in 2007, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications said in its latest global report. India's total cotton acreage stood at 9.4 million hectares in 2007. "India's Bt cotton story is remarkable,' ISAAA …
In a major breakthrough, scientists of the Pepper Research Station, Panniyur, have developed a new hybrid pepper variety that can resist the infamous foot-rot disease. Into the fourth year of its trial, the variety has also shown resistance to drought and erratic climate, KP Mammooty, head, Pepper Research Station said. …
The World Bank has expressed concerns over the slow progress in the development of transgenic food staples and called for the removal of related constraints. It said that the transgenics or the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have considerable potential for improving the productivity of smallholder farming systems and providing more …
