Nayakrishi

The New Agriculture Movement (Bengali: Nayakrishi) is an agricultural movement in Bangladesh that opposes the use of Western pesticides and genetically altered seeds.^[1]

The Movement began in response to environmental hazards that were believed to have been started by the use of insecticides and nematicides in the growing of crops.^[2]

In addition to health concerns the movement strongly promotes organic farming, and the use for food and animal fodder of plants which are often regarded as weeds.^[3] This is seen as both furthering self-sufficiency and distancing Bangladesh from Western development firms and the International Monetary Fund.^[4]

Nayakrishi has a special emphasis on supporting women, with a programme of supplying cattle to poor female-headed households which are kept until a calf is born, when the original animal is passed on to another family,^[3] and the organisation of the Specialised Women's Seed Network to collect seeds from local varieties of crops.^[4]

References edit

^ "Bangladesh: the seeds of change". UNESCO Courier. January 2001. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
^ Rothenberg, David (2005). Writing the world: on globalization. MIT Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-262-18245-4.
^ ^a ^b "To measure poverty, you may have to go chak". The Hindu Business Line. 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
^ ^a ^b Reed, Ananya Mukherjee (2008). Human Development and Social Power: Perspectives from South Asia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 129–131. ISBN 978-0-415-77552-6.