RASHME SEHGAL
NEW DELHI

Kolar (Jagraon): Banana was once considered an unviable crop in Punjab due to its climatic requirements. But that was in days of yore. Today, banana cultivation is spread over not less than 250 acres in the state. Though a high value crop, it was not being grown in Punjab till recently.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has posted to April 22 the hearings on a petition filed by Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (MMB) against the Andhra Pradesh Government over fixation of Bt cotton trait value.

MMB has contended that the Government has no role in fixing the trait value and appealed to the court to restrain the State from fixing the trait value.

Government powers

Wants farmers to let cattle graze on Bt cotton fields.

K.V. Kurmanath

A letter from Mahyco-Monsanto Biotech (India) Limited to seed manufacturers, advising them to ask farmers to let the cattle graze on Bt cotton fields, has triggered a row in the ongoing debate on Bt cotton. Ahead of the kharif season sales, the company said the grazing should be allowed at the end of the crop season.

Monsanto is back in the courts on the issue of royalty or trait fees it charges for its genetically modified Bt cotton

K P Prabhakaran Nair

Monsanto devotes an annual budget of $10 million to harassing, intimidating, suing -and in some cases bankrupting -American farmers over alleged improper use of its patented seeds. This will become the norm for India as well

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

GAYA: Like most people his age in a nondescript village in Bihar's Gaya district, he chases dreams and comes across as an average teenager who fancies the looks of a matinee star. But what sets Jayjeet Kumar, a Class VIII student apart is the poise with which he trains people sometimes twice his own age and experience about new and improved farming techniques.

| K P Prabhakaran Nair