Full Coverage: Agriculture

30.06.2005 G8 leaders are urged to give top priority to the needs of African consumers - and that means practical support and fair trade for farmers, not technological fixes.

28.06.2005 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the sagging farm sector growth, which has deprived the rural poor of substantial benefits, has to be doubled. He also stressed that the country will have to improve its performance in the water and the power sectors.

28.06.2005 The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has launched the INSTEP fund(Integrating New and Sustainable Technologies for Elimination of Poverty) which will try to meet all the needs of the poor and the marginalised and will focus on improving the life of the individual.

28.06.2005 A senior official in the Indian agricultural ministry has called for closer ties between South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) members in the field of agriculture and rural development so that it could benefit the poor people of the region. Dr Mangal Rai urged the seven countries to chalk out a Perspective Plan for the entire region.

27.06.2005 Noted Indian scientist Prof. MS Swaminathan in this opinion piece for Chennai-based newspaper The Hindu says that among the serious problems confronting them, farmers see access to water, credit, technology, and market as the most important.

24.06.2005 A new report from Food First shows that world food imports make hungry people hungrier, while undermining local economies and fueling climate change. No matter where you are, buying your food from local farmers alleviates climate change and lessens rural poverty.

23.06.2005 Is the high number of cancer patients in Punjab villages directly linked to the level of pesticides the farmers use in the state? This could be the finding of a research by the New Delhi-based organisation Centre for Science and Environment.

23.06.2005 A comparison of the attributes of goats and cows for small farms in Africa comes down heavily in favour of goats - more productive, easier to buy and sell, and they take up much less space.

20.06.2005 Une des formes de dégradation du milieu les plus alarmantes, la désertification, menace la santé et les moyens de subsistance de plus d'un milliard d'individus, déclarait le 17 juin 2005 le Secrétaire général de l'ONU à l'occasion de la Journée contre la désertification.

16.06.2005 After damning reports of excessively high levels of pesticides in the bodies of people in Punjab, the state government has now started a pest management programme that will educate farmers about pesticide use.

14.06.2005 Genetically modified (GM) animal feed is used in production of milk and meat products offered in Sainsbury's supermarkets but without appropriate labelling to inform shoppers. Campaigners are protesting throughout the week.

13.06.2005 India is currently witnessing a debate on whether the state government of Chhattisgarh should plant millions of acres of jatropha, allegedly a noxious weed, for getting biofuel. Many scientists and experts have opposed the government's view that the plant can be exploited as an alternative source of fuel as it is injurious to the health of people. Pankaj Oudhia writes an article on the controversial plant.

09.06.2005 A coalition of farm workers and environmental and public health groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to set allowable pesticide levels low enough to protect children who grow up on and around farms.

08.06.2005 Environmentalists and food security activists in India have renewed calls for a moratorium on genetically modified (GM) foods and crops after rats reportedly secretly tested with GM corn diets by the U.S. agribusiness and biotech giant Monsanto developed blood and organ abnormalities.

07.06.2005 New Delhi-based Indian NGO, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), finds residues of 6-13 pesticides in blood samples of villagers in Punjab - a state which is known as the bread basket of India - where India's famed green revolution had taken place.

07.06.2005 As Kenya approves open field planting of genetically modified (GM) crops, a new report concludes that people in developing countries are poorly served by their media in presenting arguments about GM crops.

07.06.2005 In an unusual coalition, citizens' groups, small farmers, and environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), alleging that a recent agreement would weaken controls on factory farm pollution.

04.06.2005 La Bolivie, ce pas le plus pauvre de l’Amérique du Sud, est traversée d’une crise politique qui ne cesse de s’amplifier depuis les dernières années. La population est en rébellion permanente, les gouvernements se disent incapables de gouverner. Mais à travers tout cela se profile une alternative autour du Mouvement vers le socialisme, le MAS.

01.06.2005 It's not a clever time for the European Union to make unpopular budget proposals. But the Luxembourg Presidency wants to halt the retargeting of industrial farming subsidies towards sustainable farming practices.