Word: cotton
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...helicopters on patrol. Just after dawn, Somali drivers gun their engines outside the Hotel Sahafi, signaling to Andrew that it's time to begin another day covering this demanding and often dangerous story. There was water in the taps, and electricity most of the time last week, and some cotton towels for a change, so things were looking up. More important, the fighting that had claimed 18 American soldiers the week before had subsided. There were tentative signs of peace in the city, and Purvis found himself covering an elusive political story, remembering that the streets could turn deadly...
...Field after field in this fertile valley has been abandoned, either left unplanted this year or with seedlings withering in the sun. A swath of young green cotton has an inky black stripe running through its middle; as the field becomes more stressed from the lack of water, the black will spread. Safflowers, which should be a brilliant gold this time of year, are limp and brown. Farmers pace the dusty fields, eyeing their almond trees and grape vines, both heavy with unripe fruit, trying to decide which ones to allow to die. "It's like which kid to keep...
India's rural activists for years have blamed the overuse and misuse of pesticides for a pervasive health crisis that afflicts villages like Jhajjal across the cotton belt of Punjab. Evidence continues to mount that the problems are severe. Last month, a government-funded study revealed that chemical fertilizers and pesticides have seeped into the groundwater in four Punjab districts and are causing an alarming array of ecological and health problems including cancer and mental retardation. A June 2005 study by the new Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment found residues of between 6 and 13 pesticides in blood...
Punjab's lethal pesticide legacy can be traced to the Green Revolution of the 1960s and '70s, when high-yielding varieties of cotton were introduced in the region's relatively arid Malwa belt. Initially the move was successful as yields and prices were good. But farmers soon discovered that the cotton was highly susceptible to pests, and ended up spending huge amounts on pesticides. As the pests, such as pink bollworm and aphids, became increasingly resistant to chemical spraying, farmers reacted by laying on even more, sometimes mixing two or more products against all scientific evidence. The region virtually became...
...only in this region but all over Punjab. Some farmers are taking up organic farming, and many scientists have been calling for a return to crops more suited to the local landscape-in the case of the Malwa region, pulses and cereals like bajra and maize in addition to cotton-to restore the biodiversity of the soil. The Congress Party-led government in Delhi has been talking about the need to launch a second Green Revolution, for which it is partnering with countries like the U.S. and Israel to devise technologies that are more sustainable. It is looking at developing...