tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post1833384575825478953..comments2024-03-28T16:09:44.638+05:30Comments on Ground Reality: Who controls agricultural science in India?Devinder Sharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05867902048509662981noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-46682724107159136232010-10-17T13:39:25.939+05:302010-10-17T13:39:25.939+05:30Devinderji,
Could you please provide a link to th...Devinderji,<br /><br />Could you please provide a link to this letter by the US agricultural scientists that you've talked about?<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Sangeetha Sriram<br />(Chennai)Sangeetha Sriramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12840147186890242657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-25037067645145729152009-09-10T16:09:47.870+05:302009-09-10T16:09:47.870+05:30The plight of Agri Scientists in India is more pat...The plight of Agri Scientists in India is more pathetic than described . The ICAR/ASRB recruits scientists to top management positions by taking huge soums of money. You can hear to the murmers in Krishibhavan or any other institute , they tell you how much is paid for each post. No decent scientist is occupying these posts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-55541346087479239702009-05-08T18:35:00.000+05:302009-05-08T18:35:00.000+05:30Friends,
I feel myself fortunate for having heard...Friends,<br /><br />I feel myself fortunate for having heard Sri Devinder Sharma speaking impromptu in Bangalore two years back about the plight of farmers in India. He spoke for nearly an hour and a half in English but the audience, many of whom were not so well-versed in English, remained glued to their seats and maintained a pin-drop silence. <br /><br />Since then I started reading him. The moderators and members of the JK Forum should feel honoured that Sri Sharma is writing in this forum. The point he raised in this article is very serious in nature and the government of India should understand the spreading tentacles of the MNCs in the universities. I always felt that the agriculture universities never proved helpful to the farmers but the MNCs did. However their help came with many conditions and sanctions.<br /><br />I wonder when people say there are number of research works happening in the agriculture universities but is the research work reflecting in the fields anywhere in any part of India? The answer is a big no. Instead of universities, the solutions to the farmers' problems are offered by the MNCs. How the MNCs, sitting seven seas away know the agriculture related difficulties faced by the farmers in India is something very intriguing. Apparently there is a big nexus between the agriculture universities, government agriculture departments, research scholars, MNCs and the governments of the developed nations. <br /><br />Some eight years back attempts were made to sell hundreds of varieties of rice collected by Dr Richharia in the Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGAU), Raipur many decades ago. Hail the IGAU authorities who mixed all the seeds and now no one knows, which rice variety is known as what. As this was not enough, a conspiracy was hatched to sell the entire rice bank to an MNC. Timely action by the rights activists saved the bank from going into the hands of the MNC.<br /><br />The university was again in the news for the bad reason around three years back when the germplasm of a rich Jatropha variant was 'smuggled' out. The scientist, who was doing research work, suddenly quit the job and joined an MNC, which was also doing 'research' on Jatropha.<br /><br />G MANJU SAINATH <br />(from Jharkhand Forum)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-26609776262814452642009-05-06T07:22:00.000+05:302009-05-06T07:22:00.000+05:30I may have once met Satheesh Ji in Canada but I ha...I may have once met Satheesh Ji in Canada but I have not yet visited him and his associates in India. So, I am not fully conversant with the work being done at ADARSA. However, I am fairly familiar with the excellent work being done at Beej Bachao Andolan by Vandana Shiva and her associates at NAVDANYA in New Delhi and Dehradun. In October last year, I spent a week there as part of an international faculty. I am equally familiar with the tremendous amount of work being done by Umendra Dutt, Kavitha Kuruganthi and their associates at Kheti Virasat and Punjab Eco-crisis. In addition, I am familiar with the exemplary work being done by Dr. Inderjit Kaur and her associates at Pingalwara Charitable Society, Amritsar. I am also familiar with the work being done by Jatan Trust on whose behalf Kapil Shah took me around a few months ago to visit many vidyapeeth institutions deep inside Gujarat. It gave me visions of what the salt march undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi and only 78 of his most ardent associates achieved in just three weeks and what followed hence changed the course of history for a better India. That many present NGOs are doing fantastic work along similar lines is without a question. But there is something amiss in that as far as I know no one is paying attention to construct a national education program in food and agriculture that should be introduced in every primary and secondary school, along the lines that Mahatma Gandhi proposed as Nai Talim but which he unfortunately had no time to widely implement. This is the kind of andolan that in my humble opinion needs reflection by all concerned. If properly done, I doubt if we will need another salt march but in the event we face resistance from the current powers that be then we know what to do. Some of these ideas I have discussed with Dr. Sudarshan Iyengar, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, which I understand was personally established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1921. I would like to do the same with others. To discuss these issues I would like to propose a one or two day roundtable conference at a mutually agreeable venue in the not too distant future. The main purpose of this conference should be to develop a standard curriculum which the central and state governments would be asked to introduce throughout India. Meanwhile, I would like to start a preliminary discussion.<br /> <br /> <br />Shiv ChopraDevinder Sharmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05867902048509662981noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-5195791079953169532009-05-03T14:22:00.000+05:302009-05-03T14:22:00.000+05:30Having covered Punjab Agricultural University, Lud...Having covered Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana for The Tribune newspaper for a number of years , I think I agree with you all completely. The scientists have been feeling they were not allowed to work freely. There were immense pressures from all quarters. The fact that research in this university that heralded the country into the era of green revolution suffered due to incapable scientists getting plum postings by pleasing their political masters. The latter too wanted incapable people as they could only prove to be the yes masters. Their incapability and insecurity did not allow the capable scientists to work. Instead such circumstances were created for them that they could not do anything productive and ended up frustrated. Many of them even left India so that they can get conducive environments. But now research institutes abroad are also ailing as is evident from Mr Devinder Sharma's write up.<br /><br />Kanchan Vasdev<br />Senior Staff Correspondent<br />(from Punjabeco-crisis)<br />The TribuneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-4473988235916795772009-05-03T14:19:00.000+05:302009-05-03T14:19:00.000+05:30Thank you Sharmaji
Question: Which is the most cr...Thank you Sharmaji<br /><br />Question: Which is the most cruel thing you faced in your political carrier?<br /><br />Gandhiji: The iron-like hearts of educated Indians.<br /><br /><br />SankaranarayananAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-84252959971631687042009-05-03T11:12:00.000+05:302009-05-03T11:12:00.000+05:30I think you would all be interested in an initiati...I think you would all be interested in an initiative of the Deccan Development Society in collaboration with the International Institute for Environment and Development, UK called ADARSA - ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRATISING AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN SOUTH ASIA. We are working with more than 35 networks in South Asia on this. The ADARSA initiative would go many steps ahead of the question of who controls agricultural research in India. We believe that farmers especially the small and the marginal, adivasis, dalits and women should be at the control ofagricultural research. Otherwise current agresearch is a puppet in the hands of neo liberal forces and the scientists willingly or unwillingly have become pawns in their hands.<br /><br />Therefore the initiative would like to demonstrate that if we either hand back the reins of agricultural research in the hands of the excluded, a significant and explosive perspective that would alter the course of life sapping, suicide-motivating agriculture and move it towards life affirming, hope generating farming that had formed the food, farming and cultural history of South Asia for millenia.<br /><br />For any more details on this, please visit our website: www.ddsindia.com<br /><br />satheesh<br />director<br />deccan development society<br />pastapur village, medak district, andhra pradesh<br /><br />(from punjabeco-crisis list)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-58740488179726717572009-05-03T08:53:00.000+05:302009-05-03T08:53:00.000+05:30devinderji,
The situation is worse, devinderji. ...devinderji,<br /><br />The situation is worse, devinderji. Can you ask the scientists in this country, about the act and rules that regulate Insecticides and whether they have read this. I am sure the answer will be NO. And this is about an Act which is 40 years old, and which ensured that all water, food, and life forms are contaminated with the insecticides these scientists tested and recommended for the poor farmers to use. <br /><br />These scientists are simply not bothered about anything except their pockets, their labs that earn them fame and money and what not...Infact, I now strongly believe that they all like Fritz Haber are not even bothered about their own families, who are also going to be killed by their own research applications. <br /><br />The more I see some of these scientists, the more I recognise that this technology is making them behave like Canibals. They know that this technology applied into food could be a killer, yet they seem to revel and indulge in it like Canibals...<br /><br />devinderji, we need to save the food, nature and our future generation from these canibals...Haritha Koottaimahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07496432854730759024noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-65928339846514536452009-05-03T08:32:00.000+05:302009-05-03T08:32:00.000+05:30Those are exactly my observations from my visits t...Those are exactly my observations from my visits to India during the last two years. For instance, while attending the International Conference on Toxicology at GAD Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (October 15-17, 2009), I was horrified to observe both local and some NRI scientists to convey that India cannot survive on growing purely organic food, i.e.: without the use of pesticides and GMOs. Similar statements were made by the vice-chancellor and other university authorities. Since I was also an invited speaker at this conference I contradicted them without the opportunity for a follow-up discussion at or after the conference. Apparently, the same situation prevails at other Indian centers of higher learning. These are the institutions which are listened to by the current IMF-imbued policy advisors to the Gandhi-worshiping politicians in both the state and central government(s) of India while the chemical companies laugh all the way to their banks.<br /><br /><br />Shiv Chopra <br />(from Punjabeco list)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3778570096826367144.post-80754293352486205332009-05-02T23:29:00.000+05:302009-05-02T23:29:00.000+05:30To think that such a transparent and lively subjec...To think that such a transparent and lively subject as agriculture has reached this state! <br /><br />Jagannath.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com