Full Coverage: Agriculture

30.03.2005 Activists accuse Coca-Cola of creating severe water shortages in India, polluting the soil and groundwater, and selling drinks containing dangerously high levels of pesticides, among other crimes. In Colombia, the company is charged with complicity in the murder, torture and intimidation of labor union organizers at its bottling plants. A speaking tour to hold Coca-Cola accountable will take place throughout the month of April in the U.S.

29.03.2005 "Heifer recognizes that women and men face poverty differently." Martha Hirpa, Heifer International's Director of Gender Equity, examines how improving the lives of impoverished people is tied to leveling economic differences between the genders, and targeting aid for this purpose.

29.03.2005 G20 group of developing countries have called on rich nations to scrap their farm subsidies within five years in build up to the WTO ministerial talks in Hong Kong in May.

28.03.2005 Our policy framework and investment priorities for agriculture were designed for addressing the issue of food security in the country and not for a balanced growth of agriculture. The future direction of policy clearly has to recognise that we are no longer in an era of chronic shortage, and that our emphasis now has to be on providing rapid growth in agriculture-based livelihoods, says Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

28.03.2005 Hormones in milk, food poisoning, mad cow disease, antibiotic resistant bacteria in meat – what’s happened to our food? "Sustainable Table" will help you understand the issues, offer suggestions on what you can do, direct you to more in-depth information, and introduce you to the exciting and hugely popular sustainable food movement exploding around the world.

25.03.2005 Hundreds of tons of genetically engineered corn untested for environmental or food safety was inadvertently sold by U.S.-based Syngenta over the past four years, the company admitted Thursday in the journal Nature, despite discovering the mistake several months ago. This "demonstrates once again that GE crops can't be controlled, even by the companies that develop them," said one anti-GE campaigner.

24.03.2005 A report from a pair of environmental groups launched at an international conference in Lagos Monday warns that allowing genetically modified (GM) agricultural products to be grown in Africa would put the health, environment and livelihoods of African people at risk. The report also presents new evidence that the multinational corporation Monsanto plans to irreversibly contaminate the world food supply with GM crops.

24.03.2005 The book Agricultural Sustainability - Strategies for Assessment offers ways to carry out a comprehensive assessment of agricultural sustainability in a micro-region.
Author : Gary W vanLoon, S G Patil, L G Hugar
Publisher: Sage Publications Pvt. Ltd
Pp: 288
Price: $59.95

23.03.2005 Le projet des jardins sur les toits vise à promouvoir l’utilisation des toits pour la production alimentaire et le développement de nouveaux espaces verts en milieu urbain, dans le but de créer un environnement favorable à la santé et au bien être de la communauté. Il s’agit de développer et d’expérimenter des techniques de cultures sans terre, écologique et économique, adaptées aux toits, balcons, murs et autres petits espaces urbains.

21.03.2005 Floods caused by torrential rains and melting snow have killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes in several parts of Afghanistan over recent days.

18.03.2005 Venezuela has begun to turn over unused or underused chunks of publicly-owned land occupied by private landowners and businesses to landless farmers. Opponents of President Chavez say the land redistribution is just the beginning of a programme aimed at bringing full Cuban-style socialism to the country, but analysts say this is the best way to combat the scourge of poverty in Latin America.

17.03.2005 The World Bank approved a US$123 million loan to the government of Pakistan to rehabilitate the Taunsa Barrage, on the river Indus, which provides irrigation for two million acres and drinking water in the rural areas of southern Punjab.

16.03.2005 Les hypers contre la vie chère, nous répète-t-on depuis trente ans. Résultat : entre 1998 et 2004, les prix ont davantage augmenté dans les grandes surfaces que dans le commerce de détail.

16.03.2005 Asia--the world's most populous region--could face severe economic problems as glaciers on the Himalayan mountain ranges melt away due to global warming, causing river levels to surge and then decline, warns the World Wildlife Fund. Dwindling rivers would seriously affect agriculture and industry, the group explains to a meeting of the 20 largest energy using economies in the world taking place in London.

15.03.2005 Land erosion by rivers have resulted in having no farms to cultivate, leaving farmer’s families in villages of Dayarampur, Paraspur and Taltoli, in the West Bengal’s Murshidabad district with no source of income, no food and on the brink of starvation.

14.03.2005 The Commission for Africa has called on rich countries to dismantle barriers against African goods, particularly in agriculture, and for trade-distorting agricultural subsidies to be abolished. It has also called for the respect of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

12.03.2005 OTTAWA – Des agriculteurs, des scientifiques et des spécialistes des politiques de l’Afrique, de l’Asie, de l’Amérique latine et du Moyen-Orient profiteront d’une rencontre aujourd’hui avec des représentants du gouvernement du Canada à Ottawa pour demander au gouvernement de revoir son utilisation des récoltes génétiquement modifiées comme outil de développement durable.

11.03.2005 Authorities have allowed growing genetically modified varieties of cotton in north Indian states, despite the anti Bt cotton demonstrations by the Andhra Pradesh farmers, where it was first field-tested.

11.03.2005 Farmers across Asia are rejecting the hybrid rice as it is expensive, heavily reliant on fertilisers and pesticides, and a very poor techno-fix to increase yield, say researchers.

10.03.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C. Mar 10 (OneWorld) - Countries striving to recover from natural disasters and war need to revive local agriculture as a top priority, according to a group of experts who say they can help.