Africa agriculture trade monitor 2023
The 2023 Africa Agriculture Trade Monitor, a flagship publication of AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Food Policy Research Institute, provides an overview of trade in agriculture in Africa, including
Cotton
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COTTONING ON THE PAKISTAN'S WELSHING
Japan's decision to impose anti-dumping duties of upto 9.9 per cent on cotton yarn imports from Pakistan has enraged Pakistan's cotton-exporting lobby. The decision followed an investigation that
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Pushing out pests
S Jayaraj of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's division at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Madras, has developed an eco-friendly, cost-effective and energy-saving
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Cotton-eating monsters lay low the farmers
Cotton farmers in northwest India were taken by surprise when, despite a pesticide blitzkrieg, the American bollworm devastated half their crops. Now, the farmers can"t pay up the loans they took to purchase pesticides and are turning to other crops. A to
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Driven to despair
Instead of killing the bollworm, pesticides only push cotton farmers in Andhra Pradesh deep into debt. For some cultivators, suicide was the only way out
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"Carpet bombing" the worm
The bollworm has come to stay and eradicating it will be difficult, if not impossible. Scientists are trying to contain the pest by bombarding it with everything they've got
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The long and the short of Indian cotton
UNTIL the 18th century, India was supreme in the production of cotton goods. However, after the Industrial Revolution, the British initiated a policy to replace the indigenous or desi, short stapled cotton with the American, long stapled American species
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A blunder undone
THE Prime Minister, P V, Narasimha Rao, took a commendable step by revoking the patent granted to the US company, Agracetus, in 1991. Agracetus was awarded the patent for its transgenic cotton by the
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Cotton king
In the US, Agracetus has control over all forms of genetically altered Cotton
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Revoked!
The cancellation of a US firm's rights on a method to genetically engineer cotton has brought weaknesses in India's patent system into focus
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Colouring cotton
"Colour without dyes" is the aim of Indian plant breeders, who have been trying to develop cotton coloured by nature itself. "Our labs have the germplasm of many types of coloured cotton and