India–Pakistan: Themes Beyond Borders: Selections from Nikhil Chakravartty’s Writings selected and edited by Anil Nauriya, Ravi M Bakaya, Razia Ismail Abbasi and Sumit Chakravartty, New Delhi: Aakar Books, 2019; pp 382, ₹ 895.
Animosity at Bay: An Alternative History of the India–Pakistan Relationship, 1947–52 by Pallavi Raghavan, HarperCollins Publishers India, 2020, pp 288, ₹ 699.
The need for technology in agriculture is often confused with giving farmers access to genetically modified crops. Rarely is the performance of the country’s first GM crop, Bt cotton, examined under a critical lens. Instead, the backdoor entry of illegal GM seeds is gaining momentum in the name of progress and of giving farmers a choice. The absence of a strict regulation regime is sorely felt. Research on agriculture and sustainability is the need of the hour.
The controversy over PepsiCo’s filing of cases against potato farmers for growing a particular variety highlights issues beyond just legal rights. It can have far-reaching consequences for farmers’ rights under the law, seed sovereignty and even livelihoods.
Media’s Shifting Terrain: Five Years That Transformed the Way India Communicates by Pamela Philipose, New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 2019; pp 302, ₹ 575.
As the subcontinent debates whether Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan can again demonstrate his well-known kaptaani élan to pull his country out of the crossfire of fundamentalism, terrorism and problems of development, one should not disregard that it is the mounting burden of fiscal mismanagement, among other factors, that has rendered various pro-poor strategies inert. Choosing the right options for fiscal management will be the most pressing policy decision facing him.
In a life that epitomised the struggles of the small Indian farmer, Dadaji Khobragade, the prolific rice breeder and farmer, strove against all odds to practise and uphold the core of traditional farming.
Cotton has been both a bane and a boon in the Vidarbha region. Much was expected of Bt cotton's ability to beat the American or green bollworm and reduce the cost of pesticide sprays, when it was approved in 2002 but over the years, the pink bollworm has developed resistance to both types of Bt cotton (Bollgard 1 and 2) and secondary pests have increased the spraying of insecticides. In 2017, an alarming number of farmers were poisoned by the toxic fumes of the same organophosphate compounds they sprayed on cotton. How has Bt Cotton exacerbated Vidarbha’s location-specific vulnerability since 2002?
