Consequences of the loss of commons (Common Property Resources – CPRs)

Infochange, March 2011

Bhaskar Goswami

Seeds, pods, buds, fruits, herbs and other produce collected from common property resources are consumed by communities to compensate for nutritional deficiencies during periods of acute food shortage. In fact, uncultivated food provides as much as 65% of food, and all of the fodder and fuel needs of very poor landless households. It is not difficult to comprehend the consequences when CPRs are closed, encroached upon, or access to them denied to local communities.

Dependence of the poor on commons (Common Property Resources-CPR)

Infochange, March 2011

Bhaskar Goswami

A 1999 NSSO study on the role of land, water and forest commons in the life and economy of rural Indians revealed that CPRs provide as much as 58% of fuelwood requirements and up to 25% of fodder requirements. It also provides evidence of large-scale depletion of CPRs, with CPR lands in rural India declining by almost 2% every five years.

भूख मिटाने के लिए काफी है दुनिया का खाद्यान्न

Bhaskar Goswami

Opinion in February 5, 2011 issue of Rashtriya Sahara हस्तक्षेप

Scars of the Green Revolution

Indiatogether, February 02, 2011

Bhaskar Goswami

Sick soils, declining yields, growing debts and rising malnutrition stalk the Punjab farmer, as the practices of the boom years catch up with him.

No Scarecrow Will Chase the US Away

Tehelka, November 13, 2010

Bhaskar Goswami

Without constant vigilance, we will soon be utterly dependent on America for our food

GM Crops and Trade Security Issues

Combat Law, March-April 2010

Bhaskar Goswami

Aggressive lobbying by biotech corporations like Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta and Aventis today play a defining role in international policies and decisions governing trade in GM crops and foods. Trade laws are tailored to suit agribusiness and megacorps while citizens are losing their right to decide what they consume. Farmers, on the other hand, are confronted with seed monopolies and increased volatility in trade prospects.

COP 15

A blow-by-blow account of the climate change negotiations at Copenhagen December 7-18, 2009 for d-sector.

Climate accord betrays the vulnerable
20 Dec 2009

The climate deal hastily put together by the BASIC countries and the USA gives license to the rich countries to continue polluting the planet, thereby rewarding them instead of imposing penalty for their climate crimes.

COP15 turns into a climate con
Copenhagen | 17 Dec 2009

With rich countries refusing to accept emission reduction targets, the chances of a meaningful climate deal at Copenhagen are now almost over.

Jairam gets hot and cold at Copenhagen
Copenhagen | 16 Dec 2009

Frequent change of stance and partners has not helped India’s cause in the ongoing Copenhagen conference.

Nations divided, citizens united
Copenhagen | 13 Dec 2009

While negotiators fail to reach consensus on a binding climate agreement; citizens from the entire world took part in a peaceful protest march in Copenhagen bringing the city to a standstill.

New drafts appear, but differences persist
Copenhagen | 12 Dec 2009

Fearing failure of Copenhagen conference due to widening rift between developed and developing countries, two new drafts are issued for negotiations to bridge the divisions.

India loses credibility at Copenhagen
Copenhagen | 11 Dec 2009

With news doing the rounds that the Danish Text was drafted after consultation with India, the emerging power is left with a lot of bad reputation in the ongoing climate negotiations.

Talk mathematics, not morality: US
Copenhagen | 10 Dec 2009

US and other industrialised nations get ready to derail the Copenhagen conference if developing world fails to toe their line.

G77’s unity cracks at Copenhagen
Copenhagen | 08 Dec 2009

Major developing nations dilute their demand on emission cut commitments of industrialised countries, leaving poor and island nations high and dry at Copenhagen conference.

http://d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=738

Bio-coning consumers on GM food

D-Sector, 18 November 2009

Bhaskar Goswami

Amidst increasing discomfort among people about long term health and environment impact of GM food, the biotech industry has now resorted to launch its own ‘technology ambassadors’ to deceive the unsuspecting consumers.Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon is the latest backer of GM food.

Corporate Takeover of Biodiversity Through FTAs

D-Sector, 20 August 2009

Bhaskar Goswami

In the global trade, WTO and FTAs are used as effective tools by rich nations to put in place IPR regimes favourable to their companies, much to the detriment of the poor farmer, the keeper of biodiversity.

ASEAN FTA – a hasty, unbalanced deal

Indiatogether, 15 August 2009

Bhaskar Goswami

Since Kerala and ASEAN countries both produce several similar items, competition from the latter is a cause of worry in the former. But the Centre has over-ridden the State’s objections to the free trade agreement.

Say Cheese to Brussels

Down to Earth, June 16-30, 2009

 

Bhaskar Goswami

India and the European Union are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which has serious implications on agriculture and dairy sectors. 90 million dairy farmers will face stiff competition from dairy farms in EU who receive generous subsidies to stay in business. This pact with EU will also weaken India’s stance at WTO.

Agrarian Transitions: A Symposium on the Growing Distress in Agriculture

I guest-edited the March 2009 issue of Seminar Magazine… the contents and links are below.

Seminar Magazine Issue #595
March 2009

 

 

 

Symposium Participants

 

THE PROBLEM
Posed by Bhaskar Goswami, Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, Delhi

MEDIA AND THE AGRARIAN CRISIS
Kalpana Sharma, independent journalist and columnist, Mumbai

COPING WITH COMPLEXITY
C. Shambu Prasad, Associate Professor and Coordinator, Rural Management and Library Services, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar

 

AT THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE
Suneet Chopra, Joint Secretary, All India Agricultural Workers’ Union, Delhi

 

CONTRACT FARMING FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Sukhpal Singh, The Center for Management in Agriculture (CMA), Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

 

LEARNING FROM PEOPLE
Anil K. Gupta, Professor, Indian Institute of Management and Executive Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation, Ahmedabad 

 

TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FARMING PRACTICES
Bharat Dogra, independent journalist and columnist, New Delhi

 

TRANSGENIC CROPS: A QUESTIONABLE OPTION?
Kavitha Kuruganti, Member-Secretary, Coalition for a GM-Free India, Jaitu, Faridkot

 

DIVERSIFICATION: A PLOY TO REDUCE SUPPORT TO AGRICULTURE?
T.N. Prakash Kammardi, Professor of Agricultural Economics, and Editor, ‘Hittalagida’, University of Agricultural Science, GKVK, Bangalore

 

PUSHING BIG BOX RETAIL IN AGRICULTURE
Dharmendra Kumar, India-FDI Watch, Delhi

 

REVIVING AGRICULTURE
Devinder Sharma, Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security, Delhi

 

WAYS OF SEEING
P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor, ‘The Hindu’, Mumbai

 

BOOKS
Reviewed by Iain Boal, Bhaskar Goswami and Harsh Sethi 

 

FURTHER READING
A select and relevant bibliography 

 

COMMENT
Festival Diary: Hi-jinks in Jaipur, received from Ananya Vajpeyi, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts, Boston

 

BACKPAGE 

Biofuel Certification: Branding a Disaster

”Trading Up”, CENTAD, Volume IV, Issue 3, 2008″

Bhaskar Goswami

Review of “Making Certification Work for Sustainable Development: The Case of Biofuels” by UNCTAD, 2008.

Doha Round: Mercantilist not Developmental for Agriculture

India Economic Review; Vol V

Bhaskar Goswami

 

An analysis of the current WTO negotiations in agriculture till September 2008. Instead of being “developmental”, the round has degenerated into a scramble for access to markets of developing countries.

 

 

Special safeguards weren’t the issue at Doha, it was cotton

Business Standard, 7 August, 2008

Bhaskar Goswami

India had agreed to the US view on safeguards anyway. Fighting over it just diverted attention from the US refusal to cut cotton subsidies.

Textile Industry: Caught in a web

Deccan Herald, 16 July 2008

Bhaskar Goswami

It was the cotton farmer who subsidised the textile sector. When it came to bail them out, the sector failed to stand up.

The nuts and bolts of appropriating agricultural land

Infochange News and Features, April 2008

Bhaskar Goswami

How much land is actually transitioning from farm to non-farm use? The government itself puts the figure at 1.5% of net sown area between 1990 and 2003, or more than 21 lakh hectares. The actual figures could be much higher. Putting just this much land under wheat would yield 57 lakh tonnes of produce, enough to feed more than 4.3 crore hungry people every year.

SEZs: Consequences for Agriculture and Food Security

Seminar Magazine, February 2008

Bhaskar Goswami

Contrary to claims by the government, Special Economic Zones will also impact agriculture production and food security of the country. The land under SEZs can produce enough food to feed four million hungry people in perpetuity.

Can Indian Dairy Cooperatives Survive in the New Economic Order?

The dairy sector in India employs millions across the countryside with women as the ones primarily engaged in this sector. The network of cooperative dairies across the country engaging not only farmers but also agriculture workers, landless, dalits, and some of the most marginalized communities are responsible for turning India into the largest producer of milk in the world. However, a series of reforms are subverting the dairy sector and the viability of cooperatives in the new economic order looks grim. More on this can be accessed here on the WTO website.

Making a Meal of Bt Cotton in Punjab

InfoChange News and Features, September 2007

Bhaskar Goswami

Bt Cotton, the proverbial magic bullet for Indian farmers, is turning into a bitter pill. Punjab, which is showcased as the success story of Bt cotton, is facing an unprecedented crisis. Mealy bug, a secondary pest of cotton, is devastating thousands of acres of Bt cotton. Non Bt cotton grown organically is faring much better. Truth from the farms is stronger than the lies of biotech companies and GM regulators

GEAC’s poor record of regulation

India Together, 16 August, 2007, Deccan Herald, 28 July, 2007

Bhaskar Goswami

How does one countenance a regulator that does not adhere to the law of the land and is also unable to protect the interest of one group against another?The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee itself needs to be regulated to ensure it plays a balanced role.

Wheat Imports: Subverting Procurement, Cheating Farmers

Infochange India, May 2007, Dainik Bhaskar, 15 May 2007 

Bhaskar Goswami

Despite the high price of imported wheat, the government prefers this option to paying Indian farmers a higher support price for their crops. This amounts to a covert policy of dismantling the procurement and price support mechanisms.

SEZs: Lessons from China

India Together, 09 Feb 2007, Dainik Bhaskar, 08 Feb 2007

Bhaskar Goswami

While single-minded pursuit of exports has helped China touch record growth figures, millions have been left behind, besides incurring huge environmental costs. And without even the limited dose of welfare that China offers its poor farmers, India must be wary of copying China’s SEZ-approach.

The New Maharajas of India

India Together, 16 Dec 2006

What is it like to be a modern-day Indian prince? Devinder Sharma and Bhaskar Goswami explain how the laws of the land are being redefined to bring in the reality of the royal tag for the rich and beautiful.

Wheat package: for whose benefit?

The Hindu, 08 Oct 2006

Bhaskar Goswami

To enhance the productivity of wheat, the Centre initiated a Rs. 2.480 cr package in September 2006. Unfortunately, this is another wasteful expenditure which will only benefit input suppliers instead of farmers. It is designed to camouflage government’s flawed policies that led to imports in 2006.