Vidarbha is green again, the rains have finally come, and at least at this point of time, seem to have come to stay their entire term, unlike the previous years when the it simply disappeared after giving us a false hopes of a normal monsoon. Here the article takes a look at the scene as it stands in the month of July with fairly good rains making the region appear like a paradise of green.
With its plentiful sun, water and land, Brazil is quickly surpassing other countries in food production and exports. But can it continue to make agricultural gains without destroying the Amazon? Jeff Tollefson reports from Brazil.
This paper estimates the impact of a change in procurement strategy of a private buyer in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Beginning in October 2000, internet kiosks and warehouses were established that provide wholesale price information and an alternative marketing channel to soy farmers in the state.
Soybean, the 'Golden Bean' is an important oilseed and pulse crop containing about 20% edible oil and 40% protein. Soybean being legume crop, mainly draw nutrients from native pool of soil therefore the incremental doses of fertilizers will not help in increasing the productivity, rather the function of beneficial microbes particularly, that of nitrogen fixing ones will be decreased.
If the nationwide furore over Bt brinjal was driven by the fear of unsafe food being pushed down the throat, the proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (brai) bill goes a step further to silence all opposition. The bill will bring about changes in regulating the research, transport, import, manufacture and use of genetically modified (GM) products in the country.
From 2003 to their peak in mid 2008, the nominal prices of maize and wheat roughly doubled, while those of rice tripled in a matter of months rather than years.
WHEN the internet took off in the mid-1990s, it was often claimed that it would improve price transparency, cut out middlemen and make markets more efficient. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence for this, just as there is for similar claims about mobile phones. Empirical data on the impact of these new technologies increasingly support the thesis.
In 2006, India proposed a draft rule requiring the labeling of all genetically modified (GM) foods and products derived thereof. This paper assesses the economic implications of introducing such a mandatory labeling policy for GM food. Focuses on four products that would likely be the first affected by such a regulation in India: cottonseed oil, soybean oil, brinjal (eggplant), and rice.
