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

  Vitthal, Vitthal…invokes a feeling of piousness as one chants this name. It is Lord Krishna who guided Pandavas against Kauravas in a battle best described in the Mahabharata. Vitthal Rukmai (Rukmini) temple was on my bucket list but I realized this dream of visiting this famous temple at Pandharpur in the state of Maharashtra during this trip. And to add spice to our yatra, we undertook a roundabout tour starting from Mumbai through Lonavala, Pune, Pandharpur, Tuljapur, Vijayapura, Kolhapur, Ratnagiri, Dapoli, Alibaug and then returning to Mumbai over eight days. This visit covered southernwestern and konkan regions of Maharashtra which we had hardly visited. We (four) packed up in our car and started off.                                                Itinerary of our travel from Mumbai   9 th August, 2025 (Saturday) ...

            Courtesy: Univ of Central Florida, USA As a member of QRT of the ICAR-National Research Centre for Integrated Pest Management [NCIPM], New Delhi, I had a good opportunity to understand implementation of IPM in various crops at the ground level undertaken in late 2010 and early 2020s. Most of these IPM projects were implemented by the ICAR-NCIPM in collaboration with the local institutions, with a fair amount of local agronomic practices and varying degree of biological as well as chemical inputs. The farmers seemed to be enthusiastic, as they were provided with inputs ex-gratis by the ICAR-NCIPM and local farm institutions. The degree of success ranged depending upon the crop and level of involvement. And this was reflected in the reduced use of synthetic pesticides, and yield advantage or cost-benefit ratios over the conventional crop protection practices involving pesticides. One merit that received less attention was pesticide-free farm ...

 29 January 2025   A few days back, I posted a note on linked-in ( https://www.linkedin.com/posts/govind-gujar-477861b_this-is-a-season-of-lobbying-for-concessions-activity-7289148251465830401-YPaJ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ) related to the current season of lobbying amongst Indian Industry to seek rebate on taxes as the Government of India will be presenting its annual budget on the 1 st February 2025. Pesticide industry is no exception. It is seeking rebate on custom duty as well as GST amongst others. As reported, the industry too sought the Govt commitment for extension services to be strengthened. Over the years, this industry and other farm institutions have played a major role in bringing knowledge of crop protection to the Indian farmers, educating them on the safe use of pesticides. Unfortunately, lackadaisical attitude amongst farmers towards pesticides has created many problems including endangering of lives of their own and other consumers. ...