October 2010

In the morning, one team of Kisan Swaraj Yatra members will interact with citizens of Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre before the screening... Read More

Jalna (Maharashtra)/New Delhi, October 15, 2010: On the eve of the World Food Day and on the thirteenth day of its pan-Indian outreach tour on “Food, Farmers & Freedom”, Kisan Swaraj Yatra reached Jalna in Maharashtra today and members asserted the need for seed sovereignty as an integral part of food security and sovereignty in the country. Here, hundreds of farmers and activists made a bonfire of GM seeds and protested against corporations like Mahyco, one of Monsanto’s arms in India. More...

We interacted with farmers, media and agriculture scientists in Vidarbha today. After attending a 4.45 am prayer at Bapu Kuti in Sevagram, we set off for Akola town. After reaching Akola, we headed straight for Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth. Here, we met with the Dean Dr E.R. Patil, who listened to our brief presentation in the Kisan Swaraj Yatra and also to the delegation’s request to the Agriculture University to work on straight line varieties only and to not take up any GM research. More...

12 pm : Meeting with farmers and press conference in Akola 12:30 pm : Memorandum to Dean, PKV 2:30 pm : Kanerisarap... Read More

October 13, 2010: After traveling through Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the Kisan Swaraj Yatra which started at Sabarmati Ashram on Gandhi Jayanti reached Nagpur today where it begins its 6-day tour through Maharashtra. Addressing media persons here today, the Kisan Swaraj Yatra presented data from fact-finding visits to show that public sector Bt Cotton has been a failure and that seed supply has been stopped already this season. Activists posed a question to the government on its high investment on public sector biotech and wanted to know if even the feasibility of such options has been worked out. “The experience of CICR Bt Cotton is illustrative enough to let us know that this is an unacceptable wastage of taxpayer’s funds”, said the press release. Further, the reason for stopping the supply of seed this year needs to be put out publicly, especially since it appears to involve IPR complications, said members of ASHA (Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture) which is undertaking the Kisan Swaraj Yatra. More...

We had more farmers coming forward with a resolution to move towards ecological farming in our meetings today. Before the meetings began, we went to the site of the Tripuri National Congress during the Independence struggle in India, to pay homage to Subhash Chandra Bose as well as others who fought for India’s freedom from foreign rule, for sovereignty and liberation. More...

9.30 am: Mahila Mahavidyalay, Nandanvan, Nagpur – outreach with students 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm: Rally in Wardha from Socialist Chowk to... Read More

Yatra takes a record 17 ½ hours to reach Jabalpur from Bhopal! A Press Conference, a Public Meeting and impromptu outreach in the city….. The tougher sides of the yatra start showing signs, the second tyre puncture in a week, followed by wrong (longer) route and the worst-ever roads traveled in yatra or for that matter, anywhere else, for a long past. Calling those bad roads is an understatement as the roads were just missing for most parts. It was a collection of potholes for kilometers on end. Add to these a 3-hour traffic jam in the wilderness from around 1.30 am and you have many Murphy’s Laws proven right! It also appeared that we were given wrong advice about which route to take and therefore, ended up traveling some 60-70 kms extra unnecessarily! More...

October 10th 2010, on the Global Day of Action on Climate Change, the Minister for Farmers' Welfare & Agriculture Development in Madhya Pradesh, Dr Ramakrishna Kusmariya, endorsed the messages of the Kisan Swaraj Yatra. Please click here to read his statement.