Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
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 …
Organic spice cultivation should find priority in the 12th Plan programmes, according to a report which is to be submitted to the Government of India. Addressing a meeting of the state holders of organic spice industry at Myladumpara in Idukki district of Kerala, Dr A Jayathilak, Chairman of Spices Board, …
Counter affidavit filed in the Supreme Court of India dated 29/07/2011 by the Department of Agriculture in re: Endosulfan - W.P.(C) NO.213/2011 Democratic Youth Federation of India Vs. Union of India & Ors.
The government will amend the Control of Pesticides Act to find solutions to problems relating to pesticides, said Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane at a press conference at his ministry recently. It is permitted to import, packaging, labeling, storage, formulation, transport, sale and use of pesticides according to the Control …
CARDAMOM Planters Marketing Co-operative Society in Kerala has appealed to the high court to suspend the ban on the use of extremely toxic and highly toxic pesticides. They say the ban will affect the cardamom crop this season. To promote organic farming in Kerala, the state agriculture department had ordered …
Agronomic intensification has transformed many agricultural landscapes into expansive monocultures with little natural habitat. A pervasive concern is that such landscape simplification results in an increase in insect pest pressure, and thus an increased need for insecticides. We tested this hypothesis across a range of cropping systems in the Midwestern …
The ladybird beetle, Coleomegilla maculata (DeGeer), is a common and abundant predator in many cropping systems. Its larvae and adults are predaceous, feeding on aphids, thrips, lepidopteran larvae and plant tissues, such as pollen. Therefore, this species is exposed to insecticidal proteins expressed in insect-resistant, genetically engineered cotton expressing Cry …
AS MANY as 20 states have opposed a ban on endosulfan. At a meeting convened by the agriculture commissioner’s office on June 3, the states, except Kerala, said they were not aware of health problems caused by the pesticide. These include Karnataka, which has banned the pesticide, and Madhya Pradesh, …
THE Supreme Court has ordered a nationwide ban on manufacture, sale and use of endosulfan for the time being, citing its harmful health effects. Applying the precautionary principle, the court, in its interim order, said right to life, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution, is the most fundamental of …
The widespread and increasingly intensive use of glyphosate in association with the use of GM (genetically modified) crops poses further risks to the environment and human health. This report, produced by Greenpeace together with GM Freeze, shows why rigorous assessment of the safety of glyphosate to plant, humans and animals …
A growing body of evidence suggests pesticides may play a role in Parkinson’s disease (PD) in humans. Selfreported PD has been associated with lifetime use of pesticides, and animal studies have suggested that the pesticides paraquat and rotenone can cause oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, respectively—posited mechanisms of action in …
Chlorpyrifos (CPF), a widely used organophosphorus pesticide (OP), is metabolized to CPF-oxon, a potent cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitor, and trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCPy). Urinary TCPy is often used as a biomarker for CPF exposure, whereas blood ChE activity is considered an indicator of CPF toxicity. However, whether these biomarkers are dose related has …
Herbicide tolerance and GM crops: Why the world should round up glyphosate, is a report created by Greenpeace and GM Freeze, UK, that is based on about 200 scientific studies recently published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. It presents the current scientific evidence of the harm caused by glyphosate. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/agriculture/2011/363%20-%20GlyphoReportDEF-LR.pdf
In the early 1990s, hospitals in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province, the main agricultural region of the country, started reporting an unusually high incidence of chronic renal failure. About 5,000 persons reported ill in 1993. By 2009, the disease assumed epidemic proportions. That year over 9,000 patients from North Central …
IN A tactical shift in position, India agreed to a global consensus to ban endosulfan at the recent Stockholm Convention, but asked for exemptions to continue using the pesticide at home for at least five years. So far India had been resisting the ban on the grounds that scientific evidence …
UNION agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva in April-end to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in …
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has welcomed today’s Supreme Court order banning the use, sale, production and export of endosulfan with immediate effect. This landmark judgment comes on the heels of India’s grudging acceptance at the Stockholm Convention that endosulfan is a serious health hazard and that it should …
Order of the Supreme Court dated 13/05/2011 in W.P (C) No. 213 of 2011 Democratic Youth Federation of India Versus Union of India in the matter of endosulfan use.
CSE welcomes the shift in Indian government's position on on endosulfan at the Stockholm Convention and wants government to expedite the phase out as its health hazards are now known & accepted.
