Food for warmth

As winter sets in, people in north India turn to savoury dishes and sweets that can keep them warm. The market at this time is flooded with …

Cotton saga unravels

Flat yields for five years and rising insecticide use are jeopardising the success of Bt cotton technology

Rajasthan ignores seed advice

It distributed Monsanto’s hybrid maize seeds that were not recommended for the state

Brinjal blues

Amid countrywide protests against Bt brinjal, Bangladesh government announces plan to expand cultivation of the genetically modified crop

March against Monsanto

More than a million people around the world marched against biotech giant Monsanto on May 25. The event was held across six continents, in 36 …

Karnataka bans Bt cotton seeds following large-scale crop failures

Seed company, Mahyco, offered Rs 10 crore compensation to farmers when losses were to the tune of Rs 230 crore

Treasure and the tricks

Conserving genetic purity of 750 varieties of rice with limited resources like a small piece of land and no workforce is a major challenge. Debal …

Guar mine

Farmers in Rajasthan make big bucks as shale gas rush boosts demand for little-known cluster bean

WHOSE SEED IS IT ANYWAY?

The rich world’s mania for patenting seeds and pushing the UPOV agenda do not aid food security or biological diversity

Who is protected?

The Lok Sabha passed Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Bill with complete amendments on August 9, 2001, twenty months after it …

Seeds of Strife

The Seed Bill takes away states’ power to regulate seed prices, could lead to Centre-state confrontation

Monsanto wins against Indiana farmer

US Supreme Court says that planting and harvesting Monsanto’s patented seeds amounts to making additional copies of the company's patented …

Kagga in peril

This rice can tolerate brackish water but is on the brink of extinction. Can government save it?

Built to last

A Rajasthan village has cylindrical houses that help people cope with extreme weather events

Orange tumbles

Nagpur orange’s survival hinges precariously on its return to sustainable cultivation. Farmers have woken up to this, but will the government?

FARM IP, ENTER WIPO

Developing countries will now have to battle IP issues related to new agricultural technologies at WIPO instead of WTO

Breach of trust

The world’s premier rice research institute tilts towards intellectual property rights

Food safety

In the wake of genetically-modified food flooding the Indian markets, 25 farmers' groups call for a 10-year moratorium on such food

Beware the modified wolf

Will bureaucrats choose to throw farmers and ecology to the mercy of multinational corporations by preparing the way for cultivation of …

INEVITABLE TRAGEDY

SOPAN JOSHI travels through Andhra Pradesh, only to find that beyond the immediate crisis of state-wide farmers' suicide lies one decade of …

Experts slam trial for new Bt brinjal variety, cite regulatory lapses

The Event 142 variety of genetically modified brinjal was quietly approved for field trials without any data in the public domain, claim experts

Farmers in tech trap

Cotton cultivators are on a seed and pesticide treadmill that is draining them of traditional skills  

Maharashtra bans Bt cotton seeds of Mahyco Monsanto Biotech

Move follows complaints against the company of providing inferior seeds, cheating and creating shortages

Monsanto does it again

The biotech seed giant sues a farmer for planting unbranded commodity seeds bought in the open market for patent infringement

Crazy GM patent system

The Brazilian lawsuit against Monsanto’s royalty on soybean seeds exposes the irrational way in which laws apply to GM crops