Category: Agriculture

[Premium] PepsiCo Vs Potato Farmers Case – Protecting Seed Sovereignty

Agriculture / Farmers / GS3 / IPR / May 2019

PepsiCo, a multi-million dollar conglomerate, has sued Gujarati farmers asking them to pay ₹1.05 crore each for alleged violation of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).

The company claimed that farmers violated its patent rights by cultivating the potato variety used in its chips product named Lays.

However, after facing boycott calls by potato farmers and the government’s pressure, PepsiCo has offered to withdraw the case if the farmers stop growing the registered potato variety used in its Lays chips.

This issue highlights the importance of seed sovereignty and the role played by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001 in protecting the rights of the farmers and prevent seed monopoly.

This article explains the following in an analytical manner with a mindmap for quick revision:

  1. What is the issue?
  2. What is PepsiCo's perspective?
  3. What is the farmers' perspective?
  4. What is contract farming?
  5. What is seed sovereignty?
  6. What are the salient features of Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001?
  7. Why is the PPV&FR Act significant?
  8. What is the way forward?

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Nitrogen Pollution – The Biggest Environmental Threat

Agriculture / Climate Change / GS3 / March 2019 / Pollution

The UN Environment in its Frontiers report mentioned that Nitrogen Pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats faced by humans today and needs urgent measures from countries around the world.Nitrogen is essential for life, however, the excess nitrogen pollution has huge consequences on humans and the environment. It is 300 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas besides its negatives effects on air quality and the ozone layer.Altogether, humans are emitting a huge amount of reactive nitrogen that threatens health, climate, and ecosystems, making nitrogen one of the most important pollution issues facing humanity.However, pollution caused by Nitrogen is being overlooked by governments and they focus only on carbon emissions, thus ignoring the growing risks to health and the environment.

[Premium] Climate Change vs Indian Agriculture: The Need for Climate-Resilient Farming

Agriculture / Climate Change / December 2018 / GS3 / Uncategorized

India’s agricultural sector has seen a considerable threat from climate change and it directly impacts the daily lives of farmers. A study found that climate change could have contributed to the deaths of more than 50,000 farmers or farm workers over the last 30 years. Thus the efforts to make agriculture resilient to climate must be increased and sustained in order to avoid the impacts of a warming world.

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Farmers’ Suicides in India – Reasons, Initiatives, Challenges & Solutions

Agriculture / December 2018 / Farmers / GS2 / GS3

Recently, farmers from various regions of the country marched to Delhi to register their protest against the government’s neglect of farmers’ demands. Poor earnings of the farmers led to the never-ending distress in the agricultural sector and this resulted in the increasing number of farmer suicides. These worrying realities call for an appropriate policy response and sustainable alternatives to the current agricultural methods.

[Premium] MSP for MFP Scheme – Key Issues and Analysis

Agriculture / GS1 / GS2 / GS3 / Schemes-Wise / September 2018 / Tribals

Minimum Support Price Scheme (MSP) for Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a centrally-sponsored scheme launched at the end of 2013-14 (during the 12th five-year plan) to ensure fair and remunerative price to MFP gatherers. Known as ‘Mechanism for marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and development of value chain for MFP’, the scheme was planned as a social safety initiative for MFP gatherers.

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