By Samir Nazareth

The consultations on Bt brinjal held across seven cities in India were important not only for the moratorium on the production of India’s first genetically modified food crop that resulted. The process also established that if development is for all, and technology is being touted as its vehicle, then people (be it farmer or consumer) should be included in its design

By Rahul Goswami

By the time the rabi sowing season for 2009 is over, farming households in the 252 districts declared affected by drought will be further encircled by systems and frameworks over which they have little or no control. This will happen because administrative India is wedded to "area increase and productivity enhancement in targeted districts" as a primary aim. Rural livelihoods are a by-product

By Kathyayini Chamaraj

A concept note on the proposed National Food Security Act circulated to all states continues to push for a targeted public distribution system instead of a universal one, and proposes to reduce the issue of foodgrains to 25 kg per BPL household, completely ignoring the contentious issue of who is poor and what an adequate and nutritious diet consists of

The figures for crop production, yield and acreage are looking healthy in this quarter. But behind the triumph a crisis gathers strength, says Rahul Goswami

By Rahul Goswami

In every one of India’s major states, less food is available for growing populations. The first India States Hunger Index shows alarming falls in per capita availability of cereals. Industrialised Gujarat ranks lower than Haiti on the Global Hunger Index, and Madhya Pradesh beats Ethiopia by only 0.07 points

Coping with climate change and its impact on agriculture and rural livelihoods is going to be a long haul, says Suman Sahai. It’s an irony that those who have caused global warming -- the high-emission polluters in developed countries -- are going to be the beneficiaries of climate change and not its victims, as far as food production is concerned

By N P Chekkutty

According to the Economic Review 2007, the rate of farmer suicides in Kerala has fallen dramatically, largely on account of the debt relief commission set up by the government. But the story is different on the ground, where price fluctuations, pest attacks and unsustainable agricultural practices continue to push farmers over the edge

By Devinder Sharma

While the World Bank and WTO say that more market access in developing countries is the only answer to the global food crisis, the UN’s ‘Economic and Social Survey 2008’ claims market liberalisation has actually contributed to the food crisis

India has lost out on the opportunity to build a strong liability regime for developing countries which would enable them to protect their farmers and consumers from any damage caused by genetically engineered crops and products, reports Suman Sahai after the recent international convention in Bonn

By Manipadma Jena

Veera Narayana was once a desperate farmer in drought-hit Andhra Pradesh, spending Rs 10,000 in chemical inputs per acre of watermelon crop. Today, he is the guru of organic farming in Singanamala block, his watermelon harvests healthy and his input costs a fraction of what they were

By Braj Mohan

With genetically modified (GM) brinjal set to become the first GM food to enter the Indian market, a unique consumer awareness campaign seeks to raise public consciousness about the consequences of such a policy on public health

By S Usha

Jeffrey M Smith, an authority on genetically modified organisms and the author of Genetic Roulette, says that 65 health risks from GMOs provide irrefutable evidence. of harm. In this interview he explains why GM technology must be confined to the lab

By Shubhranshu Choudhary

A group of citizen journalists in Chhattisgarh is finding out why four farmers in the state are committing suicide every day, and why the government continues to deny this. They found that in a single district, Durg, 11 farmers had committed suicide due to debt, while 52 labourers took their lives for “economic reasons”

The much-hyped Rs 71,000 crore loan waiver has benefited only a small fraction of indebted farmers in Banda district of UP, finds Bharat Dogra. But it has set off a spiral of corruption and further indebtedness

By Aditya Malaviya

Many villages in Madhya Pradesh, like Pipaldhana, have set up grain banks that lend both grain and money to people in need, at much lower rates of interest than the local moneylender. This improves people’s food security and helps promote a sense of involvement in village governance

By Rupa Chinai

Once the richest colony in the world, Haiti is shockingly poor today. In April Haiti made international headlines for food riots. This two-part travelogue on Haiti looks at how Haiti’s inability to safeguard its local food self-sufficiency has plunged the country into debt and dependence on foreign aid. There are important lessons here for other countries of the South

By Rupa Chinai

Malnutrition and maternal and infant mortality rates are extremely high in Haiti. Chronic malnutrition is seen as the biggest hurdle in raising socio-economic indicators in the country

By Rashme Sehgal

Leading scientist Dr P M Bhargava warns that India may be flooded with genetically modified foods with unknown health risks unless the government takes urgent action

The UNDP's ‘Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2006: Trade on Human Terms’ is an effort to look at trade in the region from a human development angle. Analysing the position of different countries in the region, with regard to food imports and exports, the report finds that the poorest countries in Asia have become the most dependent on agricultural imports for their basic food supply

Over half the world's underweight children live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, says a new Unicef report on the global progress on children's issues. About 5.6 million children worldwide die every year for lack of adequate nutrients

By Pratibha Shinde

A survey of 22 tribal villages in Maharashtra's Nandurbar district throws up disturbing facts about levels of malnutrition among children. The root of the problem is the absence of sustainable livelihoods

By Rashme Sehgal

Seventy-five per cent of the biological diversity of this world has already been wiped out, says Pat Mooney, conservationist and crusader against food patenting, in this interview

By Aparna Pallavi

Twenty years after the glory days of the Green Revolution, the yield from Subhash Sharma's farm plummeted, even as input costs increased. He switched to organic farming as a last-ditch effort. Thirteen years on, his farm in Yavatmal is flourishing, and has become a model for hundreds of other farmers

By Lalitha Sridhar

As the M S Swaminathan Foundation turns 12, its founder-director Professor M S Swaminathan says that even before the term 'green revolution' was coined, he had warned that overexploitation of soil and water and overuse of pesticides would have terrible consequences