The Modi govt’s nod to field trials of two brinjal varieties comes after years of delayed decisions, leaving farmers to deal with daily risks of agriculture.
Good monsoon & increase in crop area have fueled optimism about agriculture. But rapid spread of coronavirus in rural areas & declining prices will hurt.
NABARD working on geo-tagging warehouses & cold storage units. Credit guarantee fund also being set up for cattle rearers and shepherds to get easier loans.
Modi launched the fund through a video conference on the occasion of Balram Jayanthi, a day when farmers worship plough. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar participated too.
Farming is capital-intensive and vulnerable to droughts, floods & temperature shifts. But carbon-smart techniques can provide solutions for growing food demand.
State govts, agricultural universities and seed associations have been warned to keep an eye out for seed parcels coming from unknown sources as they could harm the biodiversity.
Lt Gen Hardev Singh Lidder’s book on Operation Sarp Vinash shows why the Indian Army’s 2003 campaign to clear terrorist strongholds in Rajouri-Poonch still matters today.
Bihar is blessed with a land more fertile for revolutions than any in India. Why has it fallen so far behind then? Constant obsession with politics is at the root of its destruction.
About 25 years ago I carried out field trial of Bt-Brinjal with cry1Ab gene but due to bureaucracy and other politics we have to burn the whole crop…This information was mentioned in the journal Nature’s Editorial.. July 1997
I congratulate PM Saheb ko who sanctioned for biosafety field trial..
Thank you.
Bt traits work first, but after insects develop resistants to the bt, other pesticides will be needed for control. Bt is a short term solution at best.
Rotation of seed, fields planted and pesticides used has been a common practice for hundreds of years to stop pest resistance against pesticides. Corn farmers also have a strategy called crop refuges that work to reduce the rate of pest resistance. Resistance is always virtually guaranteed if farmers never use wise practices.
Like it or not, ALL pest protection schemes are short term. The weeds and the insects respond to the new environment of a pest protection scheme by evolving to overcome the scheme. The human agricultural specialists, namely farmers and scientists, then try to devise still other schemes that the insects have not yet adapted to.
This is not just adapting to chemicals. For example, US corn farmers once discovered that they could protect their corn from the corn rootworm by planting the corn in fields that had been planted in soybeans the previous year, and or course, planting soybeans in the cornfields the following year. Within a few years, the few corn rootworm moths that perversely laid their eggs in soybean fields became a majority of the rootworm population, so the scheme no longer worked.
More power to these farmers for showing the courage to defy the foolish politicians and the disgusting fake environmental groups that stall legal acceptance of this safe crop. Well done folks.
About 25 years ago I carried out field trial of Bt-Brinjal with cry1Ab gene but due to bureaucracy and other politics we have to burn the whole crop…This information was mentioned in the journal Nature’s Editorial.. July 1997
I congratulate PM Saheb ko who sanctioned for biosafety field trial..
Thank you.
Bt traits work first, but after insects develop resistants to the bt, other pesticides will be needed for control. Bt is a short term solution at best.
Rotation of seed, fields planted and pesticides used has been a common practice for hundreds of years to stop pest resistance against pesticides. Corn farmers also have a strategy called crop refuges that work to reduce the rate of pest resistance. Resistance is always virtually guaranteed if farmers never use wise practices.
Like it or not, ALL pest protection schemes are short term. The weeds and the insects respond to the new environment of a pest protection scheme by evolving to overcome the scheme. The human agricultural specialists, namely farmers and scientists, then try to devise still other schemes that the insects have not yet adapted to.
This is not just adapting to chemicals. For example, US corn farmers once discovered that they could protect their corn from the corn rootworm by planting the corn in fields that had been planted in soybeans the previous year, and or course, planting soybeans in the cornfields the following year. Within a few years, the few corn rootworm moths that perversely laid their eggs in soybean fields became a majority of the rootworm population, so the scheme no longer worked.
More power to these farmers for showing the courage to defy the foolish politicians and the disgusting fake environmental groups that stall legal acceptance of this safe crop. Well done folks.