Cotton has been the biggest success story in Indian agriculture since the Green Revolution. In a country struggling with stagnant yields in most crops, cotton has been the one bright spot. Production has soared from 13.6 million bales (each bale is 170 kg) in 2002-03 to 31.2 million bales in …
Why have yields stagnated? Yield stagnation at an average of 520 kg fibre per hectare over the past five years could be because of several factors, including bad weather and poor agronomic management. But over 800 Bt cotton hybrids developed by private seed companies have been approved for commercial cultivation …
RESIDENTS of a village in Wankaner taluka of Rajkot district in Gujarat are celebrating a March 16 high court order directing release of water into a canal, that is their sole source of irrigation. The canal had dried up two years ago when Ajanta Infrastructure of Orpat group of companies …
Long-term occupational exposure to cotton dust containing endotoxin is associated with chronic respiratory symptoms and a more rapid decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), but the mechanisms of endotoxin-related effects remain unclear. Shi et al. examined associations between recent and past airborne endotoxin exposures, longitudinal change in …
INDIAN government’s policy to regulate cotton exports to make it available for the domestic textile industry may affect farmers. In a decision that has cotton growers worried, the Centre on September 28 deferred cotton exports from October 1 to November 1. The registration of exports has begun and no duty …
AIMING to catch up with global competition and India's fibre requirement of the future, the Union Ministry of Textiles put up a draft national fibre policy on its website in June. It has invited comments and suggestions. Though India is the second largest producer of man-made fibre in the world, …
Potato type I and II serine protease inhibitors are produced by solanaceous plants as a defense mechanism against insects and microbes. Nicotiana alata proteinase inhibitor (NaPI) is a multidomain potato type II inhibitor (pin II) that is produced at high levels in the female reproductive tissues of the ornamental tobacco, …
In Vidarbha, many farmers will not benefit from the waiver because they possess over two hectares of land. Above, Durpata Bhalerao Ataram, whose husband committed suicide in 2007. DURPATA BHALERAO ATARAM'S land is no longer an asset. It seems like a burden. She has 10 acres of it, but no …
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 …
Bob Crebas still introduces himself as "an old hippy.' But these days it is not recycled washing machines and bric-a-brac that the Dutchman trades in. He has swapped all this for fashion collections made from stinging nettles, designed and produced by his fast-growing business Brennels.nl. Four years ago, Crebas and …
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 …
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 …
A training project of Cotton & Allied Products Research Foundation of Cotton Association of India has enabled over 800 farmers to raise crop yield by 15 per cent and cut production cost by 20 per cent, Executive Director O P Agarwal told NewsWire18 today. He said the recently concluded 2007-08 …
There are attempts to attribute everything good with cotton cultivation to GM cotton and on those grounds, bring in other GM crops. Last year, an industry-sponsored study on Bt Cotton farming in India concluded that it is "transforming lives, softly'. The study "revealed' that children in Bt Cotton cultivating households …
Biotechnology proponents claim that genetically modified (GM) crops are good for consumers, farmers and the environment, and that they are growing in popularity around the world. This report attempt to provide a nuanced, fact-based assessment ofGMcrops around the world, and to clear up common misconceptions about their nature and impacts. …
