Malawi'’s agricultural sector is critical to its economy, employing around 77% of the population and accounting for 23% of gross domestic product (GDP). The majority of workers in agriculture are smallholder farmers, many of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Despite its importance, the sector faces significant challenges, …
The Union Minister for Panchayati Raj, Mani Shankar Aiyar, was recently in Nagpur to attend a conference. He volunteered to visit Koljhari, Bodhbadhan and Waiphad villages that witnessed many farmer suicides. At Waiphad, he met with a group of farmers and farm labourers who were eager to talk to him. …
How caste prejudices and class interests brought about the demise of a panchayat administered well by Dalit leaders in Tamil Nadu. A demonstration in front of the Collectorate in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu against the January 8 arrests at Iruvappapuram. DALIT empowerment remains a dream close to six decades after the …
Pesticides are responsible for hundreds of cases of poisoning in the developing world, where information and training on the potential negative health effects of these chemicals is often lacking. While the impact of the indiscriminate use of toxic chemicals is widely acknowledged, the economic costs of this misuse are less …
cancer risk among rural workers exposed to pesticides is almost twice as high as that for non-exposed workers, according to a Brazilian study published in the journal Environment International (July, Vol 31, No 5). Brazil is the world's seventh largest pesticide consumer. Researchers Illona Maria de Brito S
The gains made by Kerala through the land reform measures of the 1950s may be undone if the attempts at changing the limit on landholding and introducing contract farming by multinational companies are allowed to succeed. Kerala often boasts of the most radical land reforms law in the country. The …
There are worry lines all over the face of M K Bhojan, a small tea grower in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. Tea prices have fallen cataclysmically in the last few years, affecting small farmers like Bhojan most acutely. In 1997-98, one kilogramme (kg) of green tea leaf fetched …
Bharat Bhugel mopped his brow at 4.30 am on a chilly day in January 2003. Under the cover of darkness, he and three others had chopped down a huge sal tree inside the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in the foothills of Darjeeling in West Bengal. Bhugel has been carrying out such …
for the past several decades, a killer had been let loose in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. Perfidiously, ruthlessly it strangled its victims. None dared to charge him guilty. But now it has been caught red handed. For the first time, a report has nailed down exposure to pesticides as …
The 1930s-40s: The Indian National Congress (inc) calls upon Keralites to abstain from drinking toddy. The argument is two pronged: social and economic. Toddy tapping is projected as a debased profession that wastes the resources of the coconut tree. Year 2001: Coconut prices drop drastically. Coconut growers, wearing garlands of …
after the abolition of the zamindari system in Uttar Pradesh in 1954, land consolidation has been one of the mammoth administrative exercises conducted to put in place land reforms. Begun in the early sixties, its main objective was to consolidate the small agricultural plots into one or two large holdings, …
the number of cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma ( nhl ), chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and testicular tumours increased in three predominantly agricultural counties in western Ireland during the past decade. The increase may be at least partly a result of increased exposure to agricultural chemicals, theorise Cecily Kelleher and colleagues of …
Women farm labourers are more vulnerable to pesticide poisoning -- and they don't even know it. A survey of 13 states conducted by the Consumers Forum, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Consumer Organisations and the All India Women's Conference, found that pesticide-induced headaches, vomiting and uneasiness were common …
SALINE and degraded soils, inadequate water, poor quality seeds and the lack of means to own land -- these are the main problems that Indian peasant women face. And this conclusion was arrived at not by agrarian economists or bureaucrats, but by peasant women from the villages of north India. …
EVERY year, thousands of industrial workers all over the country fall prey to various occupational diseases. Most of the cases go undiagnosed or fail to get proper treatment, until it is too late. For instance, agricultural workers are susceptible to diseases caused by contact with chemical pesticides, whereas, illnesses such …
