|
|
|
“Bio-fuels Vs. Food
– Implications for Indian farmers” - G Ananthapadmanabhan
Farmers can grow energy crops on
degraded or marginal land not suitable for food production. An oil-bearing crop
called Jatropha curcas, for example, produces a seed that can be converted into
non-polluting biodiesel. The crop is of special interest because it grows in
infertile soil, even in drought conditions, and animals do not graze on it.
India has 60 million hectares of waste land, of which it is estimated that half
might be used for Jatropa production. energy crops. The cost of producing
biodiesel from Jatropha is just Rs. 20–25 (US$0.43–US$0.54)per liter. In
addition, farmers can rotate food and energy crops. In fact Brazilian farmers
are increasingly growing sugarcane in rotation.
 |
|
IPR Regime in India and its Implications to Agriculture -
S.Bala Ravi
TRIPS
distinguished eight different kinds of IPRs and required member countries to
institute a defined minimum legal standards and enforcement of laws pertaining
to these IPRs. The eight kinds of IPRs and associate subjects specified by the
TRIPS are (1) patents, (2) copyrights and related rights, (3) trademarks, (4)
industrial designs, (5) geographical indications, (6) layout designs
(topographies) of integrated circuits, (7) protection of undisclosed
information, and (8) control of anti-competitive practices in contractual
licenses.
|
|
Indo-US Knowledge Initiative - End of Farmers -Devinder
Sharma
The year 2005
witnessed a farm technology agreement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and the United States president, George Bush. Addressing a joint session of the
US Congress during his visit, Prime Minister said: “The Green Revolution lifted
countless millions above poverty.... I am very happy to say that U.S. President
George Bush and I have decided to launch second generation of India-US
collaboration in agriculture.”
|
|
ALTERNATIVE
SYSTEMS OF WATER HARVESTING – APPRAISAL AND PLAN OF ACTION FOR SOUTH INDIA -
C.UDAYASHANKAR
In South India,
caste and election politics complicate conflicts related to water and land.
The poor are divided on the basis of caste. After independence the States were
formed on the basis of language but not river basins – (agro – economic and
natural ecological units with well defined boundaries). Importance was given
more to major irrigation dams and minor irrigation tanks were neglected. As a
result traditional systems of tank management disappeared and disputes over
sharing of river waters between neighbouring states got exacerbated. Had the
states been formed on the basis of river basins, boundary disputes and present
day river water disputes would not have been present. Land and water resources
development would have been automatically on scientific lines.
|
|
Agricultural Research and Education: Need for a Revamp -
J. Venkateswarlu
An attempt is
made by us to examine the present scenario and the future needs in the case of
agricultural research and education. Some of the related initiatives and
evolving concepts are presented. The joint declaration of the Indo-US Knowledge
Initiative on Agriculture (KIA) was focal in the presentation. The earlier
efforts of Indo-US collaboration included land grant system in formal
agricultural research, education and extension. The joint declaration pointed
out that the system helped in Green Revolution (GR) and strengthened Food
Security. Let us consider these two issues.
|
|
“Agriculture Research in India – Farmers’ Needs &
Knowledge” - Jacob Nellithanam
We should
understand the philosophy of Green Revoluiton better to understand the current
situation in agriculture. For instance, Arthur Moses, the US Agriculture
Development Council President said that the cooperative social structure of
agrarian societies had to be dismantled to bring in the market place, so that US
interests can be enhanced. The biggest problem for world economic policy and
increased investments was that of Under-development and according to Nelson
Rockefeller, the correct response to this should be to widen the US national
interests. This meant that the first objective of US policy should be to
increase food production in under-developed areas by just 25% so that they are
brought barely above their minimum food needs. This is what the Green Revolution
was, politically, for the USA.
|
|
“Green
Revolution: Lessons for any future Green Revolution from a Science Studies
perspective” - Shiv Viswanathan
“Listening to
the other speakers, I agree with every word that has been said, am deeply
committed to understanding and saving Indian agriculture and more importantly,
the Indian farmer. But this morning I was asking myself a very simple question -
why is it that despite this fantastic knowledge that smoking is harmful to
health we go on smoking? In fact, the biggest increase in smoking is in India
and China, followed by Brazil I think. The second thing I ask myself is - do
facts really matter? Hundreds of facts have been given today. But I know -
working with the advertising industry - that one advertisement can easily defeat
thousand facts.
|
|
“The
proposals on Water Management in KIA, need & implications and progress so far”
- Y.S. Ramakrishna
The four themes
on which the KIA will work include (1) Human Resource Development and capacity
building, which is a cross-cutting theme that will happen in various
institutions; (2) Agri-Processing and marketing which basically aims to capture
the huge domestic market that exists within the country in this sector; (3)
Emerging technologies, basically biotechnology – whatever we say, biotechnology
has a promising future and we cannot just ignore it. We lack expertise in it
compared to the rest of the world. The only thing is that we have to think of
utilizing the technology in the best interests of farmers; (4) Natural Resource
Management, which mainly focuses on Water management.
|
|
