Bt cotton in India: Myths & Realities — Presentations & Brief Introductions of Speakers and Organisers
International Webinar on Bt Cotton in India: Myths and Realities
(An Evidence based Evaluation)
August 24, 2020
Organized by
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) and JATAN
In Collaboration with
Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) and
India for Safe Food
The webinar can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4o4clmQrDk
Dr Peter Kenmore’s presentation can be accessed here: https://kisanswaraj.in/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Peter-Kenmore-Webinar-on-Bt-Cotton-in-India-CSA-Jatan-ASHA-24-August-2020.pdf
Prof Andrew Paul Gutierrez’s presentation can be accessed here: https://kisanswaraj.in/wp-content/uploads/Prof-Andrew-Gutierrez-Bt-cotton-in-India-webinar-CSA-Jatan-ASHA-Aug24th-20201.pdf ; powerpoint version is available here: https://kisanswaraj.in/?attachment_id=2489
Dr Keshav Kranthi’s presentation can be accessed here: https://kisanswaraj.in/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Keshav-Kranthi-Webinar-on-Bt-Cotton-CSA-Jatan-ASHA-24th-Aug.pdf
Dr Hans Herren’s presentation can be accessed here: https://kisanswaraj.in/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Hans-Herren-Webinar-on-Bt-Cotton-in-India-CSA-Jatan-ASHA-24th-Aug.pdf
BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF SPEAKERS AND ORGANIZERS
About the speakers:
Prof. Dr. Andrew Paul Gutierrez FRES is Senior Emeritus Professor in the College of Natural Resources at the University of California at Berkeley in USA. He was founder of the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program and Associate Director of the National NSF/EPA/USDA IPM Projects. He is CEO of the Centre for the Analysis of Sustainable Agricultural systems (CasasGlobal.org) with on-going research programs globally on various crop systems. He is considered one of the best quantitative cotton systems ecologists in the world and has been working on cotton and its ecosystems for over half a century and across five continents.
Prof. Dr. Hans R. Herren, Founder and President of the Biovision Foundation is President of the Millennium Institute in the USA. He was the Director General of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Kenya until 2005; and Director Plant Health Division at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria (1979-1994). He has been awarded, among others, the Right Livelihood Award 2013; World Food Prize 1995 and Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement 2003. He has NAS and the Third World Academy of Sciences membership and is member of IPES-Food and the IFOAM-OI World Board. He was the co-chair of the UN and World Bank sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD, 2009).
Dr. Peter E. Kenmore is a MacArthur Fellow (Genius Award) for his work on IPM in green revolution rice, former Head of FAO/Plant Protection, and former FAO Ambassador to India. Kenmore was the Founder of the internationally renowned Farmer Field School program in Asia. He had also served as Executive Secretary of Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC) in International Trade in Pesticides, an FAO-UNEP global treaty which coordinates the global programme on Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs).
Dr. Keshav Kranthi is the Head of Technical Information Section of International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) based in Washington, USA. Earlier to this, he was the Director of the Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR), Nagpur, a premier institute in cotton research in India run by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). His main research interests are insect molecular biology, toxicology, ecology, immunology and biotechnology. Dr. Kranthi is the author of numerous publications on cotton and has received several awards, including the International Cotton Researcher of the Year Award, presented by the ICAC in 2009.
About the organizers:
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA):
Centre for Sustainable Agriculture works with small and marginal farmers in several states of India to make agriculture economically and ecologically sustainable, build community institutions which can manage their livelihoods and improve governance of public policy in agriculture. “Caring for those who feed the nation” is the mission of the organisation. More details can be found at https://csa-india.org/
JATAN:
Jatan is one of the pioneering organizations in India that enabled a shift towards organic farming from the 1980s. This was done through creating awareness about sustainability of natural resources, quality of food and socio-economic justice to farmers. The pathway chosen was avoidance of market dependent synthetic agri-inputs and by offering due price to farmers for their chemical-free produce. Jatan is involved in policy advocacy around farmers’ seed rights, resisting GM crops, creating markets for organic produce as well as technology transfer through facilitating peer group communication, trainings and publications.
Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA):
ASHA is a large informal network of organisations and individuals that works with a mission to strengthen sustainable agricultural livelihoods and food diversity/safety/nutrition by re-orienting policies, practices and public consciousness, towards a holistic vision of social, environmental and economic justice. More details can be found at https://www.kisanswaraj.in
India for Safe Food:
India for Safe Food is a citizens’ platform to create public awareness, an appropriate policy eco-system and consumer action to ensure food safety for all Indians. More details can be found at https://indiaforsafefood.in