New BT COTTON Approvals + WHEAT IMPORT & Govt Procurement + Development Issues

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In This NEWS Bulletin ******************************** On GMOs----- 1. More Bt cotton hybrids cleared for cultivation 2. AP plans to regulate GM seeds WHEAT IMPORT & GOVT PROCUREMENT---- 3. Centre not to extend date for wheat procurement in Punjab, Haryana DEVELOPMENT ISSUES 4. Centre objects different wages under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Scheme 5. ‘House’ that? rural folks make more homes, less earners 6. Farmers need proper inputs to raise yield: Pawar 7. BHARAT NIRMAN REPORT CARD

- Centre to fast-track growth, pump in Rs 2k cr ------ More Bt cotton hybrids cleared for cultivation http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=167175 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Friday, June 15, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, JUN 14: The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) has approved 39 new Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in south India and 9 new Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in central India in the current season. Since the apex court order of May 9, partially

modifying its earlier ban order on GM crop trials, the GEAC has gone upbeat in making a spate of approvals of Bt cotton for commercial cultivation. The GEAC in its 76th meeting held on May 11, approved 18 Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in north India and 35 new Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in central India. In its 77th meeting it approved 39 Bt cotton hybrids in south India and 9 Bt cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in central India. The committee set up a scientific investigation committee headed by the director of Indian Veterinary Research Institute, SPS Ahlawat to examine reports received from NGOs regarding sheep mortality in Warangal and Adilabad districts of Andhra Pradesh due to consumption of Bt cotton leaves. The panel consists of K Somasekhar Reddy, associate dean in the College of Veterinary, Hyderabad,

Y Thirupathaiah, joint director of animal husbandry in the Andhra Pradesh government, Chenga Reddy of Cotton Research Station, Guntur and KK Tripathi, advisor in the department of biotechnology. The GEAC also considered the report received from Andhra Pradesh directorate of animal husbandry which said that Bt cotton samples were analysed in four laboratories for presence of possible toxins and their ill effects on animals. The new panel set up by GEAC will now examine the report of AP directorate of animal husbandry. The 77th meeting of GEAC also approved 59 Bt cotton hybrids for largescale field trials in south India. It also approved largescale field trials of 35 Bt cotton hybrids in central India and two Bt cotton hybrids in north India. AP plans to regulate GM seeds http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=167176 COMMODITIES BUREAU Posted online: Friday, June 15, 2007 at 0000 hours IST HYDERABAD, JUN 14: In a significant move, the Andhra Pradesh government plans to bring in a new legislation to regulate the sale and usage of ‘genetically modified’ (GM) seeds. Speaking to media here on Thursday, the AP agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy said that the government is considering the possibility to bring in a legislation to control the usage including the sale of GM seeds. “We have already held discussions with various stakeholders including legal fraternity. Since the GM seeds are not in the concurrent list, the states have the right to have their own legislation,” Reddy told the

media. Officials said that the government may move the law department on this issue in the next couple of days, formally obtaining the permission from the chief minister. The cotton seed companies are in fight with the state government over the price of BT II cotton seed. Earlier, the government had insisted that they should take permission before selling the seed in the state, however, the AP High Court had struck down the contention and asked the companies to go ahead with their marketing plan. Meanwhile, the agriculture commissioner had issued orders to all the field staff to apply Environment Protection Act as there were certain reports of environment pollution from certain parts of the state. ------------ Centre not to extend date for wheat

procurement in Punjab, Haryana http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=167056 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, JUN 13: The Centre is not willing to extend the date for wheat procurement in Punjab and Haryana beyond June 15, despite demands made by the state governments concerned. Wheat procurement on behalf of government agencies would, however, continue in Uttar Pradesh till June 30 and in Bihar till July 15. “There is no plan to extend the date for government procurement of wheat in Punjab and Haryana,” said a senior official in the food ministry. Though wheat production in

the current season was a bumper at about 74 million tonne, as per official estimate, the procurement for the buffer stock still remains a challenging task before the government. The government had earlier fixed a target for procuring 15 million tonne wheat in the current season. Till date the total wheat procurement for buffer stock is 11.3 million tonne, including 5,00,000 tonne procured by the Punjab government for its welfare schemes. The level of wheat procurement is short of buffer norm for July 1, which is 17.1 million tonne. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had earlier urged the Centre to extend the date of wheat procurement in Punjab at least till June 30. He had asked for an increase the government’s procurement price beyond Rs 850 a quintal. The farmers in Punjab have a disposable stock of over 2 million tonne and are ready to sell their produce at a better price. Badal further suggested to the Centre not to go for wheat imports and to procure from the farmers. The Centre had recently floated a global tender for import of one million tonne wheat, but later cancelled the import plan as the prices quoted were too high. According to the recent data, market prices of wheat in Punjab and Haryana are ranging between Rs 850 to Rs 897 a quintal. The bulk of government’s wheat procurement has been from these two states. Market arrivals of wheat in these two states began towards the end of March. There was brisk market arrivals in the early stages, but even today the daily market arrival is to the tune of 3872 tonne in Punjab and 5019 tonne in Haryana. Centre objects different wages under NREGA http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=166835 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online : Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, JUNE 11 The Centre on Monday strongly objected to some state governments having different set of wages for schemes under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and other development programmes. Minimum wages should be similar to the wages paid to agricultural labours for unskilled workers and must be at par with payment made for other development works. Speaking at a meeting of state rural development secretaries convened for reviewing the implementation of NREGS the Union minister for rural development, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh emphasized the need for creating widespread awareness for the successful implementation of the scheme. He said : “The state governments cannot have a different set of wages for NREGS and other developmental programmes. The minimum wages should be similar to the wages paid to agricultural labourers and unskilled workers and must be at par with payment made for other developmental works carried out by other government agencies.” Singh said there should not be any discrimination on gender basis over the payment of amount and the amount to be paid should be on the basis of work actually done. The minister stressed upon the judicious use of central grants and said that payment under NREGS should be made only for 100 days of work. He further clarified that the wages being paid under NREGS must be in conformity with minimum wages fixed under Minimum Wages Act and there can’t be different wage structure for works under this scheme alone. Singh said a 4-point strategy inclusive of strict vigilant

monitoring, people’s participation, transparency and accountability in implementation of NREGS in different states should be opted and involvement of local representatives including Member of Parliament from the area should be ensured while undertaking social audit of the performance. He called for the timely revision of wages and verification of muster rolls on regular basis. Earlier the Union rural development secretary, Subas Pani apprised the state representatives of the agenda of meeting and asked for adopting transparent approach while implementing NREGS in their respective States. The meeting discussed various topics like deployment and training of personnel, muster roll verification campaign, social audit and the status of setting up of State Employment Guarantee Council .---- ‘House’ that? rural folks make more homes, less earners

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=166855 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online : Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, JUN 11: The number of rural households is on the rise. At least this is what the Labour Bureau’s report—Rural Labour Enquiry on Employment and Unemployment of Rural Labour Households-1999-2000—reveals. According to the report, the number of rural households has almost doubled to 137.1 million in 1999-2000 from 70.4 million during 1963-65. Rural households include rural labour households and agriculture labour households. While the percentage of rural labour households in rural households has increased from 25.4% to 40.2%, the percentage of agriculture labour

households has gone up from 21.8% to 32.2% during the same period. The percentage has shown a steady increase across both the categories of households. Though the average size of a household has remained effectively constant at 4.6 members per family from 4.5 for agriculture labour households and 4.7 from 4.5 for rural labour households, the average number of wage earners had decreased to 1.8 persons per family from 2 for the former and to 1.7 from 2 for the latter. The parameters had actually increased in 1974-75 for both the categories to 2.2, but had decreased to a low of 1.4 for agriculture labour households and 1.3 for rural labour households in 1987-88. The report analyses employment among rural households. According to the analysis, men worked for 298 days in 1999-2000 against 250 days in 1974-75. For women, the increase has been 200 days from 185 days in the same period. Driving Points • Percentage of rural labour households to rural households up from 25.4% in 1963 to 40.2% in 2000• Percentage of agriculture labour households to rural households up from 21.8% to 32.2% • Average number of wage earners in agriculture labour households fell to 1.8 persons per family from 2 Consequently, the actual unemployment rate, i.e., the number of days not worked for want of work has also shown a downward trend. For the men, it declined from 99 days in 1974-75 to 67 days in 1999-2000. For women, it declined from 160 days to 109 days. However, when compared to a similar survey held in 1993-94, one sees a decrease in the number of working days during 1999-2000. Their number went down in the case of men from 305 days in 1993-94 to 298 days in 1999-2000.-------- Farmers need proper inputs to raise

yield: Pawar http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=166950 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online : Wednesday, June 14, 2007 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, JUN 12: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said it was necessary that farmers were given relevant information and guidance in simple language so that they assimilate it to generate better returns from farming activities. Speaking at the first meeting of the Apex Committee on Mass Media Support to Agriculture Extension, Pawar said if farmers were guided about scientific use of inputs, especially balanced use of fertilizers, efficient use of water, marketing, animal husbandry, credit availability and other areas of farmers’ interest, the

adoption of new technologies and scientific agronomic practices will improve. This, in turn, will improve the overall farm productivity, he argued. At the national level, the minister said, the demand for foodgrains was increasing because of rising population and improving standards of living. In such a scenario, the only way to have sustained food security was to raise farm productivity. Extension and media can play a major role in doing so by providing proper guidance and information to farmers, he said. Pawar felicitated Doordarshan and All India Radio for producing programmes on agriculture which, according to feedback reports, have generally been appreciated by farmers. However, there was a need to improve content to make the programmes more locally relevant and easy to assimilate, he said and added that besides guiding the farmer on farming matters, the programmes should also inform him about

government’s schemes and guide him to use them. Pawar also launched a portal gives details of agricultural programmes broadcast/telecast by all Stations of All India Radio and Kendras of Doordarshan. The portal is available at: dacnet.nic.in/csms.--- BHARAT NIRMAN REPORT CARD Centre to fast-track growth, pump in Rs 2k cr http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=167071 ECONOMY BUREAU & AGENCIES Posted online: Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 0015 hours IST NEW DELHI : The Centre is likely to provide an additional funding of Rs 2,000 crore for the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIPB) during the

current fiscal. The programme is a part of the government's seven point Bharat Nirman programme to push the development of rural India into fast gear. The additional fund for AIPB will be in addition to the budgetary provision of Rs 3,580 crore during 2007-08, official sources said. Although the government proposed to create an additional one crore hectare of irrigation capacity by 2008-09 under the Bharat Nirman programme, a potential of only 20.75 lakh hectare has been created so far. In view of the shortfall and other constraints, the government is also likely to extend the time period of the four-year project, scheduled for completion by March 2009, by one year. According to sources, the government is also exploring the possibility of awarding turnkey contracts and putting in place management information systems to execute the AIPB projects

without time and cost overrun. Besides, it is planning to cover more projects under the remote sensing mechanism to improve monitoring and has already begun work on strengthening supervision of more than 50 projects. The states will be persuaded to earmark more funds for the irrigation projects, which play a crucial rule in improving farm output and bridging the yield gap of crops. Some of the other Bharat Nirman programmes, with the exception of that on telephone connectivity, are also suffering from time overrun. With regard to the rural electrification programme, the government had set a target of electrifying 1.25 lakh villages and 2.3 crore below poverty line (BPL) households by the terminal year 2008-09. An official assessment revealed that only 38,525 villages and 6.73 lakh BPL households could be covered by the end of March 2007. The programme, sources said, is likely to be continued in the Eleventh Plan period to achieve rural electrification targets. The continuance of the programme in the Eleventh Plan, however, would need the approval of the Cabinet. To achieve the drinking water supply targets, the government has proposed to synergise the programme with other schemes like rainwater harvesting, restoration of water bodies and groundwater recharge. The rural housing programme, however, is on track, with the government achieving more than 50% of the target of providing 60 lakh rural houses within two years of the launch of the Bharat Nirman projects. Having constructed 30.36 lakh rural houses by March 31, 2007, the government is likely to achieve the target by the end of the programme period. Against the target of connecting 66,822 villages via telephone by 2009, a government assessment has shown that 47,747 villages have

already been connected by the end of March 2007. With increased inflow of money into the Universal Service Obligation Fund, the rural connectivity target is likely to be achieved ahead of the schedule.----

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