Ujjain: Haritma Abhiyan, a plantation drive along the banks of the Kshipra took off on Tuesday. Saplings of neem, pipal and banyan trees were planted at gaughat area by energy minister Paras Jain, divisional commissioner MB Ojha and Mayor Meena Jonwal in the interests of environment protection, giving ambitious environment …
THE Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has formulated quality specifications for neem-based pesticides as no specific quality control standards had hitherto been fixed. The growing demand for the ecofriendly pest control agents worldwide prompted them to come up with the two new standards - is 14299:95 and is 14300:95. These …
RECENT news reports regarding the patenting of neem have left me completely baffled. It needs to be noted that the use of neem extract, seeds, leaves or any other part as pesticide cannot be patented, since such uses have been known for hundreds of years. Neem seed, being a product …
FOR generations, Indian peasants have sworn by neem and counted its blessings while using it's leaves, branches and extracts either as pesticide or toothbrush. And now, it has come as a bolt from the blue that a foreign chemical company -- the us-based W R Grace -- has acquired a …
That eponymous Indian herbal cure-it-all, the neem, could provide the world with thrice its requirement of pesticides. But over 100 Indian entrepreneurs who attended a day-long workshop on neem plantations organised in Bombay by the Neem Foundation in the 1st week of May found the industry-research interface paralysed by static, …
I READ the film review, Patent prejudice in the May 15 issue of Down To Earth with a great deal of amusement, anguish and embarrassment. Amusement because the caption under a photo taken from the film makes a false claim. Nobody has patented the use of neem as a pesticide. …
LANGUAGE, in any campaign, is as potent a force as logic. In Patent Pending: Indian Farmers Fight to Retain Seed Freedom, a beautifully and cleverly made campaign film by Meera Dewan and Vandana Shiva, the language is so loaded as to render impossible any rational debate on the subject. Even …
With the increasing importance of birth control in the national family welfare programme, contraceptive research in the country is bustling. A whole range of new contraceptives, from plant-based creams to surgical methods and vaccines, could make conventional birth-control practices such as sterilisation and condom-use obsolete. And, though they have yet …
THE KARNATAKA Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), which recently destroyed a processing unit of multinational Cargill Seeds, has lent strong support to a broad-based campaign against a plant set up in collaboration with W R Grace & Co of USA to produce a biopesticide from neem seeds. KRRS and several other …
SCIENTISTS at the Malaria Research Centre (MRC), New Delhi, say neem oil used in low concentrations effectively repels malaria-carrying mosquitoes that are resistant to pesticides. This is welcome news because malaria has re-emerged as a major public health threat because the malaria-causing microorganism, Plasmodium falciparum, is increasingly resistant to chloroquine …
INDIAN scientists are exploring the possibility that neem could provide a non-toxic AIDS therapy. In Ayurveda and Unani, neem is prescribed for diverse ailments ranging from skin diseases to diabetes. Scientists at the National Institute of Immunology (NII), New Delhi, postulate neem's efficacy is not so much because of its …
INDIA'S miracle neem (Azadirachta indica) is moving from the laboratory to the market and many US and Australian firms are getting involved in manufacturing neem-based pesticides. Says Michael O'Shea, managing director of Neemoil Australia Pvt Ltd, "Indian suppliers have been swarming about us like flies around honey." In USA, a …
THE MEDICINAL and pesticidal properties of neem are beginning to excite interest the world over. In India, medical treatises going back thousands of years indicate that the tree is a rich source of medicinal compounds. The Neem Mission in Pune, set up by the promoter of neem, C M Ketkar, …
THE EXACT origin of neem is uncertain, but today it is found almost everywhere in the tropical belt. Some say neem is native to the entire Indian subcontinent, but others expand this to dry forest areas throughout south and southeast Asia, including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Indian …
C M Ketkar Neem Mission 471 Shanwar Peth Pune 411 030 The Editor Neem Newsletter Division of Agricultural Chemicals Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi 110 012 T S Subramaniam Conference Secretariat World Neem Conference Agricultural Research Centre International Business ITC (Seventh floor) Amrutha Topaz Somajiguda Hyderabad 500 482 Defence …
THE VILLAGE midwife's claims have been substantiated by recent scientific research on the contraceptive qualities of neem. "The ancient Ayurvedic treatises indicate neem was used to induce abortions," says M R Unniyal, assistant director at the Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha in Delhi. Today, scientists at the …
THE CREDIT for spreading the message of the wondrous properties of the neem goes to Chandrashekhar Mahadeo Ketkar, whose interest in the tree was piqued when he visited the quality control laboratory in Pune of the All India Non-edible Oil Industry Association to get some soil samples analysed. Association secretary …
ANJANI KHANNA HYDERABAD & S GOPIKRISHNA WARRIER MADRAS INDUSTRIAL giants across India are taking a keen interest in neem. ITC, a major cigarette manufacturer, has found that neem extracts are extremely effective against the dreaded tobacco mosaic virus and the tobacco caterpillar moth (Spodoptera litura) which can extensively damage tobacco …
Pesticides 1. Wellgro, produced by India Tobacco Company, reportedly repels tobacco caterpillar, prevents the spread of tobacco mosaic virus and prevents nitrogen leaching. 2. Neemguard, marketed by Gharda Chemicals, Bombay. Recommended by the company for use on cotton, groundnut, pulses, rice, vegetables, fruit trees and plantation crops. 3. Neemark, marketed …
While growing up in Rajasthan, Deepak Bhatnagar often saw his parents using neem leaves to keep insects out of the wheat they stored in their home. He also saw how well the leaves worked against skin infections when they cured a persistent ulcer on his leg -- one that had …
