Mumbai/New Delhi, October 17, 2010: On the fifteenth day of its pan-Indian bus tour for the cause of “Food, Farmers & Freedom”, the Kisan Swaraj Yatra organized by Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) reached Mumbai today to a warm welcome. In an event to pay homage to Gandhiji at Mani Bhawan, the Yatris were welcomed by famous Bollywood personalities Rakeysh Mehra and Atul Kulkarni (of Rang de Basanti fame), Dr Shanti Patel and Dr G G Parikh, both of whom are well-known freedom fighters. More...

On October 16th 2010, the Kisan Swaraj Yatra reached Ralegan Siddhi in Ahmednagar district, the renowned village of Anna Saheb Hazare, a rare Gandhian activist who transformed his village into a village which combined development with environment conservation, particularly of water resources. More...

In the morning, one team of Kisan Swaraj Yatra members will interact with citizens of Mumbai at Prithvi Theatre before the screening of “Girija ke... 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 village 4 pm... 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...