Govind Gujar: entomologist's journey to understand the Society we live in

Yesterday, I got a telephonic call from my relative, Mr Narayan who resides in the remote village in Barwani district of Madhya Pradesh. Narayan is an educated intelligent farmer, about 35 years old, who knows more economics of crop cultivation than I do. He told me that from next year onward, he is going to sow non-Bt local cotton varieties in his fields. He is the same guy who used to ask me for sources of Bt cotton seeds which were at one time in short supply and were sold in black market during early years of Bt cotton commercialization in the country. Some years ago, I argued with one of the leading farmers from Akola who told me that Bt cotton is not performing as well. I am a votary of Bt cotton (and eventually Bt or GM technology) because it is hard core science that has solved bollworm problem when the American bollworm was a menace before 2002. This key pest feeds on bolls causing direct loss of crop yields. It used to damage crop regularly and was in outbreak form almost e

  Zero budget natural farming meeting in Oct 2019 in Delhi   It is only recently I read that the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the premier body of agricultural scientists in the country, requested the Government of India not to waste its efforts and resources for the obscure Zero budget natural farming. The Academy on its part had deliberated this concept (and practice) in its meeting and had invited its proponent, Mr Subhash Palekar to talk about it in its meeting. Mr. Palekar did not attend the meeting for the reasons best known to him. Last time, I heard about this gentleman attending a meeting was in a gathering organized by Isha Foundation. With the award of Padma Shri, Palekar now carries an aura for many in this country, but certainly not for many more who would critically like to know what he is proposing is scientifically correct and logically understandable. I have also read an article in Marathi newspaper challenging Mr Palekar to validate his method of Zero Bud

My relative has left abroad after doing M.Sc. in India; another after his gradulation and third acquintance that I know of after her 12th standard. I know my neighbour and his family had left many years ago, as probably they were sponsored by their kith and kin in the US. Many young men and women are leaving India with parents' blessings and their money. Some take educational loan to go abroad. Once in a flight to melbourne, I came across a guy who had been to Australia for studying culinary courses. Quite surprising and intriguing. Why would anyone go abroad for culinary course? It was just a ploy. He told me that his parents sold land and precious ornaments for funding his trip, because many in his village had followed the same route. The dream to go abroad for greener pasture is not restricted to Indians. Probably every one in the developing and underdeveloped country is having it. Even, developed nations face it. The people from one developed nation go to another for green pas

Early this week, I got a call from Dr. Anil Kolhe, renowned entomologist of Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University to inform success of the campaign to control the pink bollworm in Bt cotton in Vidarbha, the rainfed cotton growing tract. As an entomologist, he as well as many others toiled hard to educate the farmers about the integrated approach to control the pink bollworm not only in Vidarbha, but also other areas of Maharashtra state that had witnessed huge losses in 2017. They carried out surveys for incidence of pink bollworm, talked about monitoring the pest regularly with pheromone traps, asked the farmers to be more discreet to use only approved insecticides and harvest the crop preferably avoiding prolonging crop season. The last operation turned out to be blessing in disguise as residual moisture in the soil was not enough to carry on the crop after November-December, as many localities had not received rains even from September onwards. The Government of Mahara

Sometime back, Shirish Sambre, a car engineer, sent me a WhatsApp note that the Government should consider installing electric vehicle (EV) kits for the 10-year old diesel and 15-year old petrol cars, in case these are in excellent conditions, instead of condemning them as scrap as required by National Green Tribunal (NGT), the judicial body empowered to judge the environmental cases. This suggestion is excellent. The cars will serve the purpose of environment friendly transport avoiding their journey to the heap of scraps which otherwise pollutes the land, jeopardizes the health of cleaners and becomes a disposal issue in view of limited space. This indeed set the ball rolling as I remembered the speech of Maneka Gandhi in our Institute’s auditorium on environmental pollution due to cars, many years ago. At that time, I was quite junior, earning a meagre salary, but dreaming of owning a second-hand car for the safety of my family and to fulfilling my ambition of owning one. Ms Gand