ASHA’s response

This page has downloadable documents on ASHA’s response/feedback on various external developments in the recent past (policy/legislative etc.).

• ASHA’s views on amendments related to Seeds Bill (2019)
• ASHA’s letter to FSSAI on organic food certification regulations (April 2019) – there are other earlier communications on this subject also available on this website, with hyperlinks provided below, on this page.
• ASHA’s Submission to the Fadnavis Committee (High-Powered Committee of CMs for Transformation of Indian Agriculture), Sept 4, 2019
• ASHA’s analysis of the NITI Aayog’s Model Land Leasing Act 2016, and (clause-wise) Amendments sought therein.
• ASHA’s analysis of the Draft Pesticides Management Bill 2018, and why it needs to be withdrawn if its Objectives are not set right.
• Our response to the Draft National Forest Policy 2018, along with other civil society organisations.
• ASHA’s letter to FSSAI on the Notification related to Organic Standards (2017) (March 19th 2018). Our pre-notification engagement on this matter available here (May 30th 2017) and here (December 24th 2016). Earlier to this, we had communicated our concerns to FSSAI in 2013 and 2016 too.
• Our objections to the Draft “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules 2017”.
• Our analysis on mega-mergers of agri-business corporations and submissions to Competition Commission of India are available here: Bayer-Monsanto and Dow-DuPont.
• ASHA’s reaction to the WTO Bali Ministerial in December 2013 and India’s capitulation to external pressure. (Our hindi press release can be downloaded here).
• ASHA’s position on FDI in Retail. (A hindi version of this position paper is downloadable here).
• ASHA’s feedback on the Draft National Food Security Bill (draft NFSB 2011).
• ASHA’s feedback on the (draft) Land Acquisition and Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill 2011 (LARR Bill 2011).
• Amendments that ASHA seeks on the Seeds Bill 2004, with the amendments moved by the Union Agriculture Minister in 2010.
• ASHA’s note related to Pesticides Management Bill introduced in the Parliament of India.
• ASHA’s briefing paper on Hybrid Rice.
• ASHA’s note on Golden Rice (being developed in Bihar with RKVY funds).
• ASHA’s discussion note on Labour Issues in Agriculture & the Way Forward. (This is a discussion note. The immediate context for the above note is set by recent developments which we believe need our collective engagement and response: the strong concerns about labour shortage in agriculture and the dwindling net incomes from farming, the demands to link agriculture and NREGS, the changing agrarian relationships at the village level, the push towards mechanization and corporatization of agriculture for which labour shortage is now being used as one of the justifications, and the promotion of ecologically unsustainable methods like weedicides, herbicide-tolerant GM crops, ‘machine-friendly’ cropping patterns. We know that this is tricky ground and some of the ideas might get a negative response or considered too sketchy; we see this as a basis to start a discussion in which some of the ideas might get strengthened/modified/ discarded while new ones might be added. Any response from you can be mailed to Kavitha Kuruganti at kavitha.kuruganti@gmail.com).