fantastic! another scandal!!

a (another?) big scandal in the offing..
Reebok this time..
so why shud it always be the politicos and govt chappies?
there was a lull after our great satyam Raju!

so here it is..a shoe and sports company is crying foul at their top 2 employees..apparently something was cooking for so long and the parent company didnt know!!

talks of secret godowns, wrong inventory etc..and few 100 to few 1000 crores!
I will be happy if these 2 guys had palmed off some local shoes and ites as reebok?
thats shud be a slap on the face for 'image' conscious brand buyers:-)

I have never understood why the same product will cost so much higher bcos of a label/name?
now i know...it has to plan for such pilferages aint?

am actually laughing? what will  their top guys curse himself?
' beat me with a slipper' or beat me with a reebok slipper or beat me with that fake slipper?

that was strong! and welcome..

see this:
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3401466.ece?homepage=true
that was fantastic! 3 mangoes in one go- a great kick to TOI by hindu, expose of bt cotton and BRAI also weaved in!
sainath really freaked out!
and see this too: TOi's reaction!
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3401468.ece

Satyamev Jayate

folks!
watch this program of aamir khan  in star plus. every sunday at 11am. staring moro!
its also simultaneously telecasted in DD and in 6 different languages. (Tamil in Vijay!)

This man has the knack to really put in hard work and get the best..
so i am sure he will hit the target well and hope in the process it all ends up socially useful.

hectic days..nothing new!

yeah, its all old (same) story again..
hectic travel..so many stories but no time to pen:-(
was in Blore, went to Hyderabad for a couple of days then in to interior Orissa, then Bhubaneshwar, back to blore, then Mysore, HDKote..
will hit base after a long time in 2 days..
Lotsa interesting stuff happening..

Most of this travel was regarding a Productivity study that ASHA (Alliance for sustainable and holistic Agriculture) is undertaking, where - in 7 states across India  a sample of 30 organic farmers and 30 chemical ones( with similar background and control factors) in each state is being identified and then shall be followed for the next 4 seasons, lotsa info collected and compared.

The main purpose of the study is to assess productivity of ecological farms, in comparison to chemical farms - however, productivity will not be assessed just in terms of grain yield of one crop as is usually done and has been done by other studies; the USP of this study is to evolve a composite index around our understanding of productivity, which includes:

* crop yields;
* system outputs;
* net incomes (without premium prices but calculating at market price values of chemical produce)
* human nutritional value of outputs from unit acre of land.

This kind of analysis will allow us to challenge the existing notions of productivity by developing our own index and data collected can be used for a narrow interpretation of productivity also if needed.

Iam actively coordinating in all states in identifying the farms/farmers, giving orientation to the researchers in all these states..
so the hectic travel apart from the other old tasks also resulting in travel and tight schedule..

limitless human greed!

see this:

can u guess what this is? one more: dont miss that bucket on the compound wall and a hose going down!

hmm..what a shame! I saw this act as I was walking one early morning from our Adisil farm in tirumangalam. Just saw this in a glance and thought they were feeding the goat or attending to some problem. Then on our way back after some visit to the next village, saw this was still continuing.. so went near and asked what was happening.. they were taking these goats to the shandy (haat, local bazar) for sale.. so they were force feeding the goats with water like this.. so that it adds a couple of more kilos and gets them that much more money! quo vadis humans? human being is not being human:-( what a shame..disgusting, isnt?

TN budget 2012 reaction

There has been a good budget, looks like in TN this year. There has been a high allocation for agri!
While it is good to note that there has been a greater allocation for agriculture, thrust on sustainable farming (both ecologically and economically) would have helped.
see here!

That quote of mine about lack of anything organic is just one (big) lacuna in this budget..
there are others:
1/ The most strikingly absent feature is the Organic Mission fro the state. while many are states are announcing themselves to be going organic and releasing an organic mission for the state and announcing many proactive organic policies and programs to take the organic movement forward, it is sad that TN which has many pioneer organic farmers is missing the opportunity to lead from the front. This is especially important in today's scenario- on health as well as the fertilizer shortage/subsidy removal condition.

2/ The very talk of second Green revolution is very dangerous. It is well known fact that Green revolution focused only and 2 grains- rice and wheat and hence lost out in long term. Today most of the ills of farmers and farming (esp for the small and marginal ones) is due to the green revolution. The ecological impact too has been heavy because of GR. The much hyped 2nd GR in the east is already receiving flak in the eastern states of West Bengal, orissa, Assam etc and is being questioned and derided heavily.

3/ The agri Insurance is a very good and much needed scheme and increasing its coverage is great. But there are lots of issues on the ground level esp very operational and functional issues. These will have to be addressed to reap the benefit. So awareness programs as well as understanding the exact needs of the farmers needs to be planned. May be state level workshop with farmers, farmer leaders, civil society members, agri dept members and insurance experts need to converge. (SFA intends organising one such workshop)

4/ SRI- System of Rice Intensification is a good news. Hope it is taken up the organic way like in most other states in India. (actually SRI has grown beyond rice and shud be ideally called Syatem of roots Intensification)

5/ SPI- of pulses is also a welcome move.

6/ Marketing and storage facilities needs more attention and allocation. More plans should be around implementing them at block level.

7/ It is indeed welcome to see the mention about rehabilitation of tanks. If implemented, this would have been one of the greatest outcomes in this budget, considering the water crisis in the coming days.

8/ we should learn from the Cuba example. when in the 80s, US backed embargo was imposed, suddenly they were left without chemical fertilisers..and in crisis the country acted very boldly and prudently and went the sustainable, traditional and organic ways. Today it is the only 100% organic country in the world. needless to state that they are the most healthy society in the world - leading both in health and health care indices.

10 years of Bt cotton - its myth, hype and lies..

so a decade passed and the reality is slowly striking..
Bt cotton the only GM crop allowed in India 10 years back is proving to be all that menace the activists and enviro warriors were warning us all..
and see here: even Pawar's own ministry guys are croaking- secretly but!

Meanwhile see here for a Tamil version of detailed report on 10 years of Bt cotton in TamilNadu:
http://safefoodalliance.blogspot.in/

and for an english version- detailed report on a decade of Bt cotton in India:
http://indiagminfo.org/?p=393

and now on be sure u will oppose anything to do with GM (Bt and such like)if u care about your own health, health of the environment and your next generation.

SAY NO TO GM!