The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
Pawar announces mega plans for mechanisation in 12th Plan Faced with farm labour shortage following the introduction of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday announced mega plans for mechanisation in the 12th Five-Year Plan. “With the successful implementation of the MGNREGS …
Taking serious note of the increasing number of child labourers in the Bt Cottonseed farms of North Gujarat, a team from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), led by Dr Yogesh Dube has issued necessary directions to the State government. The team also visited Jaipur, Rajasthan from …
Europe's biotechnology industry has warned the European Commission that agricultural imports vital to EU food security are increasingly being put at risk, due to the slow pace of the bloc's approval system for genetically modified (GM) crops. In a report to be presented to EU policymakers on Tuesday, biotech association …
Concerns regarding the commercial release of genetically engineered (GE) crops include naturalization, introgression to sexually compatible relatives and the transfer of beneficial traits to native and weedy species through hybridization. To date there have been few documented reports of escape leading some researchers to question the environmental risks of biotech …
Mahyco (Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company) will have to wait for one more year to launch Bt cottonseeds with Roundup Ready Flex (RRF) technology as Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) asked the firm to repeat trials . RRF is a technology that kills weeds in cotton fields. When herbicide is sprayed …
Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds". The GMO Emperor has no clothes empowers citizens to create a GMO-free world, rich in biodiversity and healthy food. It also advances alternatives that are …
BIOTECH companies in the agriculture sector have taken to a publicity blaze in recent months, splashing advertisements that extol the “inherent safety” of genetically modified (GM) crops along with organising a series of farmer meets and press conferences aimed at promoting transgenic technology as the “powerful and safe” way to …
FEW laws have been embraced as wholeheartedly by industry as BRAI or the Biotech Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011. Yet to be introduced in Lok Sabha, following a last-minute hitch, the proposed law has received the full support of the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE) and other leading …
Chennai The Rubber Board is awaiting states’ nod to conduct the field trials of genetically modified (GM) rubber crop, said Sheela Thomas, chairperson, Rubber Board. “Subsequent to the clearance of ministry of environment and forest to conduct field trials of GM rubber, we solicited rubber plantation states to volunteer for …
The Rs 8,000-crore seed industry has asked the Andhra Pradesh Government to finalise prices of Bt cotton seeds by February-end every year. “It is important for us to have the price tags by that time in order to prepare the packets and send them to dealers well before the season …
Monsanto Co., the world's largest seed company, has prevailed in another lawsuit against a U.S. farmer, earning a ruling from a federal appeals court that protects Monsanto's interests even when its patented seeds are sold in a mix of undifferentiated "commodity" seeds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal …
In the midst of a dire need to feed millions of people facing hunger because of drought, Kenya's newly passed Biosafety Act allows for the importation of GM crops - but at what cost? As the most severe drought crisis in 60 years continues in East Africa, a contentious issue …
Delhiites join Greenpeace to oppose the proposed ‘GM-friendly' biotechnology Bill Greenpeace members were joined by Delhiites at Dilli Haat near INA Market here on Tuesday morning to cook a record-breaking GM-free baingan ka bharta to oppose the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2011. The cooking was part of a …
Eminent city scientists on Tuesday made a plea to the Prime Minister to lift the moratorium on commercial production of Bt Brinjal and called it absolutely safe for human consumption. Scientists were drawn from Government institutions, including Indian Agriculture Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture; Department of Biotechnology, Government of India; …
New Delhi: It was a grand lunch fit to feed an army. Chefs from Le Meridien, Indian Institute of Hotel Management and Indian Culinary Forum prepared two mammoth containers of mouth-watering, traditional Punjabi style ‘B a i g a n k a B h a r t a.’ What made …
Greenpeace activists, with assistance from chefs of Le Meridien and students of the International Institute of Hotel Management, today prepared 342.5 kg of organic baingan bharta (eggplant dish), the largest amount of the dish ever cooked in the world. The event, held at Dilli Haat in south Delhi, was a …
India and the US are poised to expand agricultural cooperation with the hope of bringing about a "Second Green Revolution" in India. Cooperation in this area would, however, need to take into account the interests of Indian farmers as well as issues related to bio-diversity and the environment.
DuPont said the Environmental Protection Agency has approved a new use for an insecticide trait for corn seeds that will fight above-ground pests only. The company's Pioneer agricultural unit has received approval to sell its Optimum AcreMax Xtra insect protection as part of its "refuge-in-a-bag" offering for corn farmers. The …
