Both India and Africa face common issues like degradation to cropland and environment, deteriorating farm economics and a pressure to feed a growing (and young) population, this presents an opportunity to collaborate and share experiences. It is particularly imperative to focus on farmers who own small-units of land, since such smallholder farmers comprise over 70% of cropland in both Africa and Asia. In this context, a low-cost sustainable agriculture method from India that can help Africa’s farmers is Community-Managed Natural Farming or CMNF (formerly Zero Budget Natural Farming). While some Indian states are practicing CMNF across a few districts, the state of Andhra Pradesh has made this a ‘state-wide policy’ and aims to convert all its 6 million farmers to CMNF. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh’s CMNF programme has evinced initial interest from Africa, with Rwanda recently organising a knowledge-session on CMNF. What does Community-Managed Natural Farming involve? The CMNF method focuses on the concepts of regenerative agriculture (enabling the cropland to regenerate its natural nutrient cycle instead of being dependent on chemical pesticides/fertilisers and agroecology (studying the interactions between plant-types, human and environment, and its application to agriculture). Our conventional chemical-based farming system has had severe environmental and economic impact, including degradation of croplands, freshwater pollution, farmer debt and residue in crops. CMNF is a ‘package of practices’ that strengthens the regenerative capacity and sustainability of our soil, environment and farming system. CMNF uses low-cost inputs made from natural ingredients and bovine waste, instead of costly chemical fertilizers. Natural ingredients sourced from foods contain the sugars and proteins which micro-organisms need to thrive in the soil, while bovine waste contains a high content of beneficial micro-organisms. Chemical pesticides are replaced with natural or mechanical alternatives, including plants possessing pest-repelling qualities. CMNF involves techniques like inter-cropping/border-cropping, i.e. sowing a combination of crops that helps protect the farmers’ income. A combination of plants also enhances the soil’s nutrient capability. As micro-organisms thrive in the soil, it enhances a food-chain of organisms, insects and birds. This soil-food-web regenerates the soil’s nutrient cycle. Multiple plants at varying heights in the same farm cushion the sunlight on the exposed soil and smaller plants, reducing moisture evaporation. The application of all these natural inputs are based on certain combinations, and this forms the ‘natural farming’ part of CMNF. The other part of CMNF is the ‘community-managed’. Just like microfinance, CMNF is based on the social capital created by local communities and self-help groups. CMNF expands with knowledge-transfer. Africa and India have a large population and landmass, making it tough for a central team to execute single-handedly. Training the local communities in the CMNF practices and managerial capabilities helps them become the ‘foot-soldiers’, who then expand and supervise the programme to more villages. This institutional structure is instrumental in ensuring the knowledge-transfer quickly cascades a large landmass and population. A quick look at CMNF’s multiple advantages! First is cost. CMNF uses inputs that are low-cost and available locally. This reduces the cost to farm, critical for smallholder farmers. Not only does this reduce the debt burden, it also reduces the pressure of rural migration to cities in case the small farmers fail and are unable to repay their debt. In countries where the average per capita income is still low, a lower cost to farm is important. Next is volume. Weak institutional and market linkages frameworks force smallholders to depend on middlemen to sell their produce, reducing their bargaining power on pricing. On top of that, smallholders have limited volume which reduces their bargaining power further. Now, crop-cutting experiments in CMNF farms in Andhra Pradesh showed, on an average, a productivity improvement in the crops. Its 2019 presentation at the Centre for Science and Environment’s conclave showed a 14% rise in rice yield in sample CMNF farms vs. conventional farms during the 2018 summer crop cycle. This was 21% in maize, 34% each in groundnut and ragi (finger-millet) and 51% in sugarcane. An improvement in volume can help pricing-power, to some extent. Improvements in cost and volume helps boost the farmers’ net income. The same 2019 presentation showed a 51% rise in the net income of rice farmers in sample CMNF farms vs. conventional farms. This was 46% in maize, 83% in groundnut, 125% in ragi and 68% in sugarcane. These are encouraging numbers! CMNF also helps slow the damage to the environment. We have described how the process revives the natural nutrient cycle of the soil through the food-web of micro-organisms, which otherwise perished owing to the rampant use of chemicals. Water usage also reduces as the micro-organisms make the soil more porous, enabling better absorption of rainwater, movement of organisms and nutrients, resistance to cyclones due to a deeper root-system and resistance to drought. Health can gain. Crops produced without chemicals are free from residue, thus reducing incidents of illness. That implies lower medical bills, important in countries with a near-absence of state-sponsored social security and healthcare. There is also a policy advantage. Africa remains a net food importer, despite being home to a young and growing population. The reduction in cropland due to degradation adds to the pressure of food security. Scaling up low-cost, sustainable agriculture may be pragmatic. At the end, low-cost sustainable agriculture is a low-hanging fruit for diplomatic engagements.
in both Africa and Asia. In this context, a low-cost sustainable agriculture method from India that can help Africa’s farmers is Community-Managed Natural Farming or CMNF (formerly Zero Budget Natural Farming). While some Indian states are practicing CMNF across a few districts, the state of Andhra Pradesh has made this a ‘state-wide policy’ and aims to convert all its 6 million farmers to CMNF. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh’s CMNF programme has evinced initial interest from Africa, with Rwanda recently organising a knowledge-session on CMNF. What does Community-Managed Natural Farming involve? The CMNF method focuses on the concepts of regenerative agriculture (enabling the cropland to regenerate its natural nutrient cycle instead of being dependent on chemical pesticides/fertilisers and agroecology (studying the interactions between plant-types, human and environment, and its application to agriculture). Our conventional chemical-based farming system has had severe environmental and economic impact, including degradation of croplands, freshwater pollution, farmer debt and residue in crops. CMNF is a ‘package of practices’ that strengthens the regenerative capacity and sustainability of our soil, environment and farming system. CMNF uses low-cost inputs made from natural ingredients and bovine waste, instead of costly chemical fertilizers. Natural ingredients sourced from foods contain the sugars and proteins which micro-organisms need to thrive in the soil, while bovine waste contains a high content of beneficial micro-organisms. Chemical pesticides are replaced with natural or mechanical alternatives, including plants possessing pest-repelling qualities. CMNF involves techniques like inter-cropping/border-cropping, i.e. sowing a combination of crops that helps protect the farmers’ income. A combination of plants also enhances the soil’s nutrient capability. As micro-organisms thrive in the soil, it enhances a food-chain of organisms, insects and birds. This soil-food-web regenerates the soil’s nutrient cycle. Multiple plants at varying heights in the same farm cushion the sunlight on the exposed soil and smaller plants, reducing moisture evaporation. The application of all these natural inputs are based on certain combinations, and this forms the ‘natural farming’ part of CMNF. The other part of CMNF is the ‘community-managed’. Just like microfinance, CMNF is based on the social capital created by local communities and self-help groups. CMNF expands with knowledge-transfer. Africa and India have a large population and landmass, making it tough for a central team to execute single-handedly. Training the local communities in the CMNF practices and managerial capabilities helps them become the ‘foot-soldiers’, who then expand and supervise the programme to more villages. This institutional structure is instrumental in ensuring the knowledge-transfer quickly cascades a large landmass and population. A quick look at CMNF’s multiple advantages! First is cost. CMNF uses inputs that are low-cost and available locally. This reduces the cost to farm, critical for smallholder farmers. Not only does this reduce the debt burden, it also reduces the pressure of rural migration to cities in case the small farmers fail and are unable to repay their debt. In countries where the average per capita income is still low, a lower cost to farm is important. Next is volume. Weak institutional and market linkages frameworks force smallholders to depend on middlemen to sell their produce, reducing their bargaining power on pricing. On top of that, smallholders have limited volume which reduces their bargaining power further. Now, crop-cutting experiments in CMNF farms in Andhra Pradesh showed, on an average, a productivity improvement in the crops. Its 2019 presentation at the Centre for Science and Environment’s conclave showed a 14% rise in rice yield in sample CMNF farms vs. conventional farms during the 2018 summer crop cycle. This was 21% in maize, 34% each in groundnut and ragi (finger-millet) and 51% in sugarcane. An improvement in volume can help pricing-power, to some extent. Improvements in cost and volume helps boost the farmers’ net income. The same 2019 presentation showed a 51% rise in the net income of rice farmers in sample CMNF farms vs. conventional farms. This was 46% in maize, 83% in groundnut, 125% in ragi and 68% in sugarcane. These are encouraging numbers! CMNF also helps slow the damage to the environment. We have described how the process revives the natural nutrient cycle of the soil through the food-web of micro-organisms, which otherwise perished owing to the rampant use of chemicals. Water usage also reduces as the micro-organisms make the soil more porous, enabling better absorption of rainwater, movement of organisms and nutrients, resistance to cyclones due to a deeper root-system and resistance to drought. Health can gain. Crops produced without chemicals are free from residue, thus reducing incidents of illness. That implies lower medical bills, important in countries with a near-absence of state-sponsored social security and healthcare. There is also a policy advantage. Africa remains a net food importer, despite being home to a young and growing population. The reduction in cropland due to degradation adds to the pressure of food security. Scaling up low-cost, sustainable agriculture may be pragmatic. At the end, low-cost sustainable agriculture is a low-hanging fruit for diplomatic engagements. | January 5, 2021
Air pollution much bigger killer than Covid in India, finds study KOLKATA: Air pollution caused nearly 13 times the number of deaths in 2019 than the raging Covid-19 pandemic the following year in Bengal, according to a recent report published by The Lancet. And it’s not just Bengal. The overall pollution-related deaths outnumber the countrywide Covid death figure by a huge margin. Track the pollution level in your city According to the ‘December 2020 Lancet Planetary Health Report’, 9,712 people died of Covid in Bengal last year, whereas pollution claimed 1.2 lakh lives (1,22,833 people) in 2019 and caused an economic loss of around Rs 15,516 crore. Looking at the data, it’s clear which is the bigger killer across the country, even in a pandemic-ravaged year. Across India, there were as many as 16.7 lakh deaths attributable to pollution in 2019, while Covid caused 1.5 lakh deaths in 2020, according to data sourced from all state governments and the Centre. Among the institutions that The Lancet collaborated with for the survey was Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which is at the forefront of strategizing the medical fraternity’s response to Covid-19 in the country. Of the total deaths attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, the largest proportions were due to COPD (32.5%) and ischaemic heart disease (29.2%), followed by stroke (16.2%) and lower respiratory infections (11.2%). Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Bengal and Rajasthan accounted for over 50% of the air pollution-attributable deaths in India, according to data from The Lancet’s report that was was conducted under the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative by ICMR, Public Health Foundation of India and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The estimation of the economic impact of air pollution, as the cost of lost output due to premature deaths and morbidity attributable to air pollution for every state of India, was done using the cost-of-illness method. “Air pollution has clearly emerged as one of the biggest killers in India. Its impact on our economy is far-reaching. There is a long-drawn collective battle against it. A couple of doses of vaccine cannot prevent it. When Covid-19 has occupied the lion’s share of our mind space, The Lancet study is a grim reminder of what we are missing out on,” said Dr Arun Sharma, public health expert and professor of community medicine, University College of Medical Science, New Delhi. “Air pollution is a major problem across India, and a much bigger issue across the Indo-Gangetic plain,” said Centre for Science and Environment executive director and air pollution expert Anumita Roychowdhury. “Bengal being at the tail end of the plain needs proactive steps to speed up action on transport, clean fuels in industry, clean power plants, waste management and biomass burning across the state.” Doctors, too, have reported an alarming rise in non-smoking COPD patients, primarily due to indoor and outdoor pollution. “This is a bigger epidemic but currently going unnoticed because of our current obsession with Covid-19. The fast declining air quality in our urban areas has made even breathing injurious to health,” said Dr Arup Haldar, a senior pulmonologist with Woodlands Hospital. Bengal Clean Air Network (Bengal CAN), which is spearheading a movement for better environment, is concerned about the current state of air quality in Bengal and the economic risk it poses to the population. “We need an all-out collective effort to clean up the air,” said Vinay Jaju of Bengal CAN.
'Chinese-designed syrup can bypass Indian standards,' says Sunita Narain on adulterated honey Ten out of 13 brands of raw and processed honey had failed a purity test conducted using a German technology called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance test in December 2020. Early in December, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) released a report claiming that 10 out of 13 brands of raw and processed honey failed a purity test conducted using a German technology called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) test. The report claimed that these 10 brands were adulterated with a Chinese sugar syrup that is purportedly designed to by-pass parameters set by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). To discuss this report, Times Now’s Kasturi Sharma spoke to the Director-General of CSE, Ms Sunita Narain. Kasturi Sharma: Thank you for speaking to Times Now. First of all, could you please explain the recent findings of the Centre for Science and Environment on the issue of adulterated honey in India and how concerned should consumers be if your findings are believed to be true? Sunita Narain: So, the CSE has done this investigation on the popular honey that we are eating, and we have been shocked to find that the honey is actually adulterated with sugar syrup. Now the worst part of the study is that this adulteration is so sophisticated that it cannot be caught with by Indian laboratories using Indian standards. And the reason it is so sophisticated is that the Chinese have designed the syrup in a way that it can bypass the Indian standards. Okay. So this is why it is so dangerous and it is something that needs to be dealt with because it is obviously having a very bad impact on our health. Just imagine. You have increased your intake of honey because of COVID-19. Today, every house is taking honey because it helps to build immunity. But instead of the honey, you are taking, you are actually taking sugar syrup. Now, just think about the impact on your health. You are taking sugar, not honey. And this will make you fat. And in fact, now it is also understood that if you are fat or overweight, you are more at risk to COVID-19. So you have actually increased your risks both – one you are taking more honey because to build immunity against COVID-19 – and two that honey not being honey but sugar – you are actually getting more at risk to COVID-19. So, it is a really bad impact on our health. Now, what did CSE find? We were tracking this issue of syrup because we heard from beekeepers that they were losing revenue and …that they were not selling honey at all. So we were concerned that if the beekeepers are not selling honey, there must be something happening. Because after all, our honey consumption is increasing, then why are beekeepers not being able to sell honey? And that’s when we investigated that there is this syrup that is there. We contacted the Chinese companies, we managed to procure the syrup. We also got the syrup from a company in Uttarakhand, in Jaspur, and using that we adulterated the honey, raw honey, put the sugar syrup in it and we sent it to a laboratory and in the laboratory that honey passed the Indian test. So, you can imagine. Taking the sugar syrup from an industrial complex mixed it with honey and it has passed the laboratory test. Now, this is why we took 13 Indian brands, top brands and some smaller brands and we had first sent the samples to an Indian laboratory for testing where they also passed the test. Then we sent the same samples to a German laboratory, to do an NMR test over there, and most of the samples failed the advanced test. So whereas they had passed the Indian test, they failed the test in Germany which proves our point that the syrup that is being used in the honey is designed to bypass the Indian test. And it can be only caught by using a more sophisticated testing methodology, which we did when we sent it to Germany. Kasturi Sharma: What has been the government’s stand in all of this? How has the government responded to your investigation? Sunita Narain: We have had a meeting with FSSAI, we have informed them. Now, FSSAI was the original whistleblower. Because if you look at it, the government clearly knew that something was happening. In December last year, FSSAI wrote to state food commissioners saying please step up your actions, we know that some adulteration is happening because of sugar syrup. Okay. Then we know that FSSAI followed this up in February and then in this June it actually wrote to the importers of sugar syrup saying we know some syrup is coming in from abroad which is being used to adulterate honey, please inform us about the end product of your use of the syrup. So FSSAI knew something was happening.
ददल्ली-एनसीआर की प्रदषूषत हवा सुधारनेके ललए गदठत 18 सदस्यीय आयोग हवाहवाई ही साबित हो रहा है। कहनेको तो इसके गठन को दो माह होनेको हैं, लेककन इसके अजस्तत्व का एहसास कहीीं पर नहीीं होता। सिसेिड़ी िात यह हैकक इस आयोग का अभी तक कोई स्थायी कायािलय तक नहीीं खुला , जिकक जमेजमाए प्रदषूण ननयींिण एवीं पयािवरण सींरक्षण प्रार्धकरण (ईपीसीए) को खत्म कर ददया गया। आलम यह हैकक हवा को काला करनेवालेभयमुक्त नजर आनेलगेहैं। इस साल सददियों के प्रदषूण की रोकथाम के ललए ककसी तरह की गनतषवर्धयों पर भी खास प्रनतिींध नहीीं लगा। िस जि-ति सीपीसीिी ही छोर्ेमोर्ेददशा ननदेश जारी करके इनतश्री कर लेता है। अि तो आम लोग भी चुर्की लेनेलगेहैंकक शायद ईपीसीए अध्यक्ष भूरेलाल व सदस्य सुनीता नारायण की ‘सख्ती’ खत्म करनेके ललए ही इस आयोग का गठन ककया गया है।
From May 18 to June 5, the AQI remained in the “moderate” category. From July to September, monsoon rains kept pollution levels in check. A near-halt in normal life and economic activity, aimed at slowing down COVID-19 spread, yielded clear blue skies in Delhi, among one of the most-polluted cities across the world. However, the gains from the COVID-19 lockdown did not last long as economic activity sputtered back to life, and air pollution returned to the city''s usual high levels, making the pandemic worse. During the lockdown period without any major relaxations — between March 25 and May 18 — pollution levels in Delhi reduced drastically and the air quality index (AQI) remained in the “satisfactory” category for most of the time. “In Delhi-NCR, one of the major factors that led to the drop in pollution was a 97% reduction in overall traffic and 91% reduction in trucks and commercial vehicles entering the capital during April, as compared to the pre-lockdown months of December-January,” the Centre for Science and Environment said in a report. From May 18 to June 5, the AQI remained in the “moderate” category. From July to September, monsoon rains kept pollution levels in check. At an average AQI of 63.8, August was the cleanest month of the year in terms of air quality. There were four “good” air days in August, the highest in any month since 2015, when the CPCB began monitoring AQI. By October end, the air turned "severe" again, raising concerns among health experts about its impact on the coronavirus patients. It prompted the Delhi government to launch a massive anti-air pollution campaign - "Yuddh Pradushan Ke Viruddh" - under the leadership of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Environment Minister Gopal Rai. In an effort to curb air pollution levels in the city, Mr. Kejriwal banned firecrackers in the national capital ahead of Diwali, and promised to ramp-up critical health infrastructure in State-run hospitals, citing links between rising air pollution and a surge in coronavirus cases in Delhi. The Indian Medical Association said in November that “13% of the recent COVID-19 cases may be linked to air pollution”. As pollutions levels breached the emergency threshold twice in the month, a grey apocalyptic smog enveloped Delhi for days, blotting out the sun from the sky and smudging landmarks from view. According to the CPCB, the city recorded 10 “severe” air days this November, the maximum number in the month in four years, largely due to lesser precipitation and large-scale stubble burning. Pollution levels on Diwali this year and the day after were the maximum in the last four years despite a ban on firecrackers
NEW DELHI: There is a rebound of congestion in the national capital in the post-lockdown phase but Delhi is not yet prepared for transformational changes to curtail the traffic volume, said an analysis by Centre for Science and Environment. The CSE has assessed travel pattern in pre-lockdown, lockdown and postlockdown phases. It analysed Google mobility data and daily real-time information of Google Maps for 12 major roads — MG Road, NH44, Sardar Patel Marg, Outer Ring Road, Dr KB Hegdewar Marg, Sri Aurobindo Marg, NH 9, MehrauliBadarpur Road, GT Karnal Rd, Lal Bahadur Shashtri Marg, Dwarka Marg and Najafgarh Marg. There was a massive drop in visits to transit stations for different purposes during the lockdown — around 87 per cent lower than the baseline levels or the prelockdown phase. Trips to grocery stores and pharmacies were reduced by more than 70 per cent, but were still higher than all the other visits, the survey said. Workplace trips reduced by 65 per cent, it said.In the post-lockdown phase, the travel pattern was close to normal with grocery trips and workplace trips recovering the most by the end of November and was around 15 per cent lower than the pre-lockdown phase. Transit station trips improved but were still about 40 per cent lower than the baseline, it said. Trips to retail stores, which plummeted to about 90 per cent by the end of April, have now recovered by more than 50 per cent. The increase in these trips indicated the need to access the activities with traffic congestion being back on the roads, it said. Delhi cannot meet its clean air targets if overall traffic and vehicle numbers are not controlled, the analysis pointed out. There was a loss of public transport ridership amid the pandemic, it reiterated. The analysis’s hourly trends show that for both during lockdown and post lockdown, the most significant change was noticed after 4 pm. The average increase in travel speeds after 4 pm during lockdown was 116 per cent compared to pre-lockdown levels. Post lockdown, the speeds reduced by an average 42 per cent compared to during lockdown. The reprieve from traffic congestion and exposure was possible due to the forced shut-down during the lockdown phases, the rapid assessment said. “But this could not be sustained...This is of serious concern as scientific studies in Delhi have shown that vehicles contribute about 40 per cent of the total pollution load in the city,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, CSE executive director-research and advocacy
Two Writings on Climate, Disasters and Displacement for Details http://www.mcrg.ac.in/PP112.pdf
NEW DELHI: An analysis done by Centre for Science and Environment on the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on mobility patterns in Delhi has revealed that road congestion returned to close to pre lockdown levels after the lockdown was gradually relaxed and the economy reopened. Since traffic congestion has a direct impact on air pollution, the study said Delhi needed a massive mobility transition to cut vehicular pollution. CSE analysed Google mobility data and daily real-time information on Google Maps for 12 major roads: Mehrauli Gurgaon Road, NH44, Sardar Patel Marg, Outer Ring Road, Dr KB Hegdewar Marg, Sri Aurobindo Marg, NH 9, Mehrauli Badarpur Road, GT Karnal Road, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, Dwarka Marg and Najafgarh Marg. The travel times from origin to the destination was noted for every hour from 8am to 8pm for the pre lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown periods, which were later converted to speed. The analysis showed that mean travel speed on the stretches increased from 24 kmph during pre-lockdown period to 46 kmph during the lockdown, a 90% improvement. However, average speed slowed to 29 kmph after the lockdown was relaxed. In the peak hours during the lockdown, travel speed on the selected stretches rose from 23 kmph to 44 kmph, only to reduce to 27 kmph in the post lockdown period. The off-peak traffic pace similarly quickened 92% during the lockdown but slackened by 34% thereafter. CSE also analysed the change in travel speeds on the same stretches and during the same time intervals during the operation of the odd-even road rationing exercise in November 2019. Comparisons with the normal or pre-lockdown speeds showed an average increase of 21% during the odd-even period on all stretches. The change from pre-lockdown to post-lockdown was also an identical 21% rise. The temporary reprieve from traffic congestion and exposure to pollution could not be sustained, rued Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director (Research and Advocacy), CSE. “The scale and scope of action needed to transform public transportation, walking and cycling options and vehicle restraint measures like city-wide implementation of the parking management area plan and the notified parking rules have remained limited and inadequate,” Chowdhury said. “This is of serious concern as scientific studies in Delhi have shown that vehicles account for around 40% of the total pollution load in the city.”
KOLKATA - Many in India have resorted to a higher consumption of honey to boost their immunity amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but an adulteration scandal, dubbed widely as Honeygate, has left a bitter aftertaste. This comes after the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation, revealed earlier this month that many of the country's top honey brands were adulterated with modified sugar syrup designed to beat tests prescribed by Indian food safety authorities to detect impure honey.
Hyderabad: For generations, tribal communities have braved the challenges and dangers of the wild and collected honey from hives deep in the forests. Traditionally, in Telangana, the Kolam community is largely known for collecting honey from forests during summer and winter. The erstwhile Adilabad district, in fact, is known across the State for its organic honey. However, over the last few years, the beekeeping business and honey hunting in areas around Hyderabad is seeing a surge. The number of beekeepers, beekeeping companies and honey societies in the city has increased. The organisations that conduct workshops, help people understand the importance of bees, train them on beekeeping and provide them with bee boxes are also increasing in number. Ravindra Kumar Pydi, Director of Api Culture Technology Centre, said bee farming or apiculture has increased in the last few years and the surge can be attributed to the more urban population including techies showing an inclination towards the agriculture sector. Traditional honey hunters say there was a lot of buzz about bees going extinct and this could be the reason behind the surge in beekeeping activities. Lakshmi Katabathina, a beekeeper by profession from the city said though there’s a significant increase in beekeeping, we need more people to take up this line of work considering the surge in demand for raw honey. “There is a vast potential for beekeeping in our country. However, due to lack of knowledge, scientific beekeeping is not being practised largely by the beekeepers,” she added. Lakshmi is certified in beekeeping from the Ministry of Rural Development. She visits her bee farm ‘The Beekeepers Farm’ in Suraram of Qutbullapur suburb regularly to check the health of the bees. She found her passion for bees from her early years. “I want to create more awareness over beekeeping by teaching bee harvesting techniques to youngsters. There are many subsidies allowed by the government in beekeeping which makes it easier for anyone to start beekeeping on their own,” Lakshmi said, whose father implemented the traditional way of honey bee pollination to increase crop yield every year. She has European bees on her farm which require 4-7 migrations in a year. Indira Reddy is a school teacher and an NGO coordinator. But her passion led her to take up beekeeping. Now she has 60 beehive boxes in Vikarabad and Nalgonda and 5 boxes in LB Nagar. “The beekeeping business has definitely increased in the city. It is partly due to awareness of the importance of pollination to increase the yield and other aspects. Even educated individuals are taking up beekeeping as self-employment,” she said. Beekeeping has a lot of financial potential since it helps produce a wide range of bee products including honey, wax, jelly, and pollen that are in huge demand in the market. Srinivas, a honey hunter, from Mall village of Yacharam Mandal believes the bee population has increased during the Covid-19 lockdown because there was less human activity. Pointing out the need for government intervention, he said farmers have to be educated more on organic cultivation. “This will help the apiculture field immensely and increase the bee population as well,” he said. In Telangana, districts such as Vikarabad, Adilabad and Nalgonda have major bee populations. There is a good enough bee population in the city as well. In recent times, the demand for raw honey surged since the environment watchdog Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said honey sold by some major brands in India was adulterated with sugar syrup.
Honey is not hamburger. It’s hallowed by tradition, doesn’t contain foul fish or fowl, and is not made by evil MNCs. If fact it’s as pure as pure can bee! Best of all, it’s got Baba Ramdev’s stamp of approval. But last month environmentalist Sunita Narain stung him and leading manufacturers. She demonstrated that leading brands of honey were spiked with rice syrup. Like most entertaining movies therefore, the bottles too merited an ‘A’ Certificate (for Adulterated). Honey makers retaliated casting aspersions on Ms Narain’s testing processes. So, the Baba’s New Year resolution is to clear the air. Deep breathing and a session of kapaalbhatti should help.
Should a government come up with laws to protect a corporation against liability lawsuits, or should it come up with laws to regulate corporations and empower citizens so that corporations can be held to account for any kind of abuses or exploitation? A statement made by one of India’s vaccine makers reminds us that the Constitutional duty of our democratically-elected government is to protect its citizens, not corporations. Governments must keep people before profits and regulate corporations so that these companies conduct businesses with respect to human rights and the planet. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India, recently said that manufacturers of vaccines against Covid-19 must be protected against liability in case there are any claims, including against serious adverse reactions, made against their shots during a pandemic. “We need to have the government indemnify manufacturers, especially vaccine manufacturers, against all lawsuits. In fact, COVAX and other countries have already started talking about that,” he said. “This is especially important only during a pandemic to indemnify vaccine manufacturers against lawsuits for severe adverse effects or any other frivolous claims which may come about because that adds to the fear (about vaccines).” Poonawalla needs to be reminded that India, along with other governments, is negotiating a UN legally binding global treaty on human rights and business. It is the governments that need to hold abusive corporations legally and financially liable. It is the responsibility of institutions, like Medical Research Councils, Drug Controller Generals, and other regulatory bodies like US FDA and other national FDAs or their equivalents, to ensure that scientific studies are being conducted with utmost scientific integrity and ethics. Elaborate protocols have been laid out (with due diligence and scientific integrity) to conduct any scientific research study (also referred to as a clinical trial) to find if a vaccine or a drug is safe and effective for human beings, if there are any side effects (on different populations/ age-groups etc), and also to find answers to a range of other safety, efficacy and effectiveness related issues. It is also important to note that clinical trials have had a badly tainted history of ethical and human rights violations, with human beings treated as ‘guinea pigs’ (such as studies done forcibly on prisoners of war, decades back). While it is important for science to proceed ahead, there is no doubt that ethics cannot be compromised at any stage. For instance, communities that participate in a clinical study ‘for larger good’ should be fully protected, compensated, provided best standards of care, and be the first ones to be offered access to the product-under study (if and when found safe and effective). Every adverse side effect they report must be attended to with dignity and respect, and not brushed off. But as a report said, “Serum Institute of India is threatening to file for damages against a trial volunteer who went public about a severe adverse event he suffered while he was part of the Covid vaccine trial.” It added, the Indian Council of Medical Research, Drug Controller General of India and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have been “conspicuously silent” on this. Last month some Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers released some information on initial early-stage results of ongoing studies in the form of press releases, forcing scientists to demand more transparency in the sharing of scientific information for scrutiny and review before creating a (undue) hype. Is it not alarming to learn that some corporate executives of these agencies had sold millions of dollars’ worth of their shares when share prices had gone up soon after the press release went out? What Poonawala is suggesting is ominous as it reminds us of several instances in this country when the governments have clearly tried to protect the interests of the corporate at the cost of the people. The Chief of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was let go off by the Madhya Pradesh government in December 1984 under pressure from the United States after the fatal accident in the company’s plant in India and put on a flight from Bhopal to Delhi to eventually escape from the country never to return to face trial in Indian courts. The compensation eventually paid was inadequate and punishment given to Indian officials of Union Carbide too little. Then again, the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010 puts all the burden of compensation (in case of an accident in a nuclear facility) on the operator which would be the public sector unit, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, clearly shielding the suppliers who would be foreign multinational giants, unless it is a very obvious case of an act of omission by an employee of the supplier done with the intent to cause damage, which would not be easy to establish. In 2003, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) revealed high levels of pesticides and insecticides in Pepsi and Coca Cola sold in India. The government formed a parliamentary committee headed by Sharad Pawar, then Agriculture Minister, which verified the CSE findings, but didn’t recommend any action against the soft drink manufacturers. Interestingly, since then these soft drinks are banned in Parliament’s canteen. The Health Ministry has now notified standards for pesticides in carbonated water and soft drinks. The Rajasthan High Court had directed the two soft drink giants to mention on each bottle that the drink did not contain pesticide residue or that it is safe. The companies chose not to comply with the order. When the matter was taken to Supreme Court by petitioner Sunil Mittal, the court while supporting the idea, in principle, left the matter of mandating a declaration that the level of pesticides was within permissible limits to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, which is yet to enforce the decision. Public policy has increasingly been dominated by private corporations as India adopted neo-liberal economic policies in the early 1990s. Moreover, people need to think why do we have to deal with almost eight crore Covid-19 cases worldwide (over one crore in India)? Why did the government dither in taking appropriate infection control measures (including ban on international travels) when the World Health Organization had declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020? Infection control and disease control is government responsibility. Who is responsible for preventable diseases to become the leading causes of deaths of our population?