I am a proud son of Indian farmer. I did my MBA and I live in US. Since my family belongs to farming; I know pretty much everything about problems of farmers. May be little different from region to region but basic problems were almost similar. I would like enlist problems that were not addressed in the show; there might be some time constraints for you. I did some research to establish organic vegetable store and help the farmers at back home but I couldn’t able to do it. 1) Lack of government cooperation. In order to sell my vegetables as organic food, I have to get the certification from the central government. It will take at least 3 to 5years to certify and sell is as organic. 2) Lack of public awareness. Usually public wants to buy low priced vegetables due to their financial issues (most of the middle class people) and don’t know the positive effects on their health which you were mentioned in the show. Thanks for that. 3) High in price when comparatively. Why because lack of farmer training in those areas like how to improve the crop production without pesticides. The amount of time and effort of the farmer been wasted, if farmer didn’t gets the enough production. Nobody is willing to give easy money to the farmer, if he lost the crop. We have to remember he has a family to feed every day. My suggestion is educate the farmers in these areas. Start the model pilot projects to show the farmers and government has to initiate the incentives to promote the organic farming. *** The saddest part of Indian farmers is pricing of their own products not decided by themselves. It has been decided by the middle mans. He works day and night and brings it to the market and put the product in the hands of the middle mans. Here I want mention not just in vegetables each and every product has been produced by farmers like cotton. Chilly and you name it, is in similar situation. **** 4) Only business but no humanity and no proper policy guidelines to sell the pesticides. When I see the big guy was talking nothing but stories to sell the pesticide. He has money power he will recruit the graduates (like me) to sell the products with innovative marketing ideas. 5) No proper supply chain management. Lack of proper transportation and storage facilities to the farmers. My guess may be 30% of vegetables will be wasted because of improper handling and no storage facility. If government can come forward and establish 1 cold storage at each market place would substantially minimize the wastage. That 30% would help the farmers to gain some profits. 6) Paralyses of government farmer subsidize schemes. My guess 50 to 60% of farmers doesn’t get the loan to get the proper tools to minimize the human efforts and maximize the production with low cost. Above ones are glimpse of my findings. Anyhow thanks for your effort to highlight the idea for good cause. This is my personal opinion. I have no intention blame anybody.

My wife and I cry watching your shows because we can connect, even if we are living in US for 30 years. Our parents have contributed to green revolution (my wife's father was All India Wheat coordinator and my father was one of the top agricultural administrator) and we both are plant scientists/professors. I was Chair of American Soc Plant Biology-International Affairs and also one of the contributor in developing Biotech Vision 2020 for India. Based on Toxic food show, it is my opinion that you have tried to create sensation by "writing on the envelop on one side". Offcourse, pesticides are harmful, if not used properly. However, for feeding Indian population, it is important that we use best agricultural practices. Dr. Shiva, on one hand is against biotechnology even if Biotech provides solution for avoiding use of pesticide...and at the same time on your show, she provided a false picture. We dont have organic input for even 1% cultivable land, because we take produce to eat but do not return organic material back to fields. Pathogenic load is also a big problem, because it can kill or make people sick. We are more toxicated when we travel to our workplace/college/school compared to potential risks from proper use of pesticides. For balanced show, and for providing right information, you could have considered bringing experts from ITTR, ICAR, CSIR, ICMR etc. In summary, you are doing great work for which you will be honored by a Nobel Prize for peace (my prediction), however you may consider to write on both side of the envelope. Best regards to all members of your team, Satyamev Jayte...

                              “IS USE OF PESTICIDES JUSTIFIED OR NOT”   Yesterday  I watched episode of satyameva jayate and I was really happy that team of aamir khan he has raised a very important issue that was not in eyes of common people but in my opinion the homework for the show was not done as needed and the truth and the reality still lies somewhere beneath the shadows . India is a country whose GDP has major share of agricultural productions and directly or indirectly about 70% of total population is dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. After green revolution in 1970’s the production of grains has raised manifolds and role of pesticides have played a major role in attaining this .Due to long running of fields the basic nitrogen content at that time was very low and after the use of urea the conditioning of soil enabled the proper nutrition of crops .Had there been no use of urea the production factor would not have been this much .Same thing is with pesticides .Harmful pests eat up a major share of total crop yield and are responsible for damage of crop .still production of India is lower then other countries of the world who are having much less land holdings as compared to our country . India still don’t use as much pesticides as compared to countries of western world .Yes this is true that hazardous pesticides are responsible for a number of major illness in human beings and number of such pesticides have been banned but still there are number of chemicals like carbofuran,phorate,methomyl,monocrotophos ,cypermethrin ,dichlorovas etc that are in use in our country but such chemicals are banned in other countries .This is a fact that needs serious observation but truth is the fact that due to ignorance of government and lack of any monitoring agency these chemicals are not banned in India .It is the use of such chemicals that is responsible for disturbing in food cycle. But another attention drawing factor is that corruption like any other field is also in agriculture sector e.g. Government has banned endosulfan chemical in India but still many companies are providing endosulfan after import from china .These things are not possible without bribing government officials .One of such company who is providing endosulfan has faced huge protest by farmers of eastern Uttar Pradesh due to faulty formulation of a wheat herbicide who damaged wheat instead of herbs and still the crop fields affected by that chemical are not showing full seed germination potency .A number of farmers loosed their crops and an estimated loss of about 10  crore is being done to farmers but yet that company is openly manufacturing its chemicals and nothing has happened to its directors even after many complaints made by farmers and shopkeepers. Can u expect organic farming to be made possible where corruption at such level exists? A major factor that also drew my attention is ‘GOVERNMENT SUBSIDY’ that is being given by government of India to farmers in form of rate relaxation in hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, machines etc. But hardly such subsidy reaches to farmers because maximum amount of it goes to hands of greedy government officials .A subsidy of 100 rupees was given this year on some good variety of paddy seeds but no such subsidy reached to farmers as government store officials exploited the opportunity to get some extra earnings.     So it is not possible to make up an organic society without controlling corruption in this field so that maximum benefits can be made in reach of common farmers so that he may think in investing extra money in his farming. But one thing is also true that organic farming is itself not enough to assure needed yield . Is there any solution for shoot borer in brinjals, cabbage, and paddy??? Is there any organic solution to BPH that damages paddy most?? Is there any organic way that can stop fungal attack in mango??Is there any effective organic technique that can stop late blight of potato that caused great Irish famine?? ANSWER OF ALL THIS IS “NO” we cant solve these problems just by use of organic farming and if any one can solve it he will be the next mahatma Gandhi of INDIA.I am not criticizing organic techniques but what I want to say is that we need to be practical too that what is needed . In world of so many people increasing population has created pressure on us to maintain food availability and to assure food security and without use of pesticides and chemicals there is no chance to assure food security to world.     So truth is the fact that all pesticides are not harmful only a few are harmful that needs to be banned but there are many bio-friendly chemicals like cartap hydrochloride,emamectin benzoate,spiromesifen etc that do not harm friendly insects and also do not enter in food chain . There are different colors’ triangle behind each agri-input .RED is most hazardous while green is most safe .mostly green triangle insecticides are a bit expensive that’s why farmers don’t use them and also shopkeepers get less profit so they are not interested in selling these products .Example of such products include CORAZINE (DUPONT) , FAME (BAYER CROP SCIENCES) and TAKUMI (RALLIES INDIA). These chemicals are excellent pest controller and also safe for our environment. so why cant programs be started in promoting such types of chemicals and subsidies be given to eco-friendly techniques? Organic farming needs lot of labor force that is a major problem these days .Use of pesticides that are harmless are an practical answer to such problems. So why cant we start a new venture of joint use of organic and chemical farming where selectivity principle must be used for a particular problem as per need and best result on farmer?? Pesticides are harmful but not all of them so why government is not promoting eco-friendly insecticides rather then promoting hazardous chemicals?? There are many more things that are needed but the debate has just begun and I hope some positivism shall come out of it.   SATYAMEVA JAYTE   UDIT

One attitude of people of India (including me) I have seen is that we are afraid of maintenance for anything. We want a magical solution on everything. For. e.g. Now we want to ban the use of  plastic bags. Government has implemented and withdrawn the banning idea many times. But often we forget that it is the wrong attitude of people that need to be banned and not the use of plastic. Plastic needs a maintenance and recycling. When we see our country people worry about the effect of plastic and blame it on its non-biodegradable nature. We often forget only this non-biodegradable nature of plastic has made our life very much easy. The same thing is with pesticides. People want zero maintenance thing in this case also. When we wanted green revolution we implemented pesticides program. Now we don't want pesticides, instead we want organic farming. People need to understand they have to be rational in whatever they do. Typecasting that the use of pesticides is always bad will jeopardize our rational vision. We need to understand and educate people that we don't have to use pesticides for each and every crop but there are only certain crops which would be benefited by pesticides. For other crops they can use the more than 100 remedies available mentioned in the show. Aamir's view on organic food was felt little biased towards it. We want person like you rationalize the decision and take an optimal or middle path. The show felt like us versus them. I mean organic food versus pesticide manufacturer. Most of the proofs and things said by Mr. Shroff were utter lies but still don't typecast pesticides as a bad thing, Otherwise we are gonna do the same thing when we accepted them during green revolution. We type-casted them as a crop medicine.

DEAR AMIR SIR,I  AM A GOVT SERVANT   AND I WATCH SATYAMEVA JAYATE  WHEN EVER I GET TIME. SIR I HAVE MANY PADDY CROP LAND IN MY VILLAGE AND FARMING IS DONE TWICE A YEAR AND WE USE VARIOUS TYPES OF PESTISIDES AND THEY COST A LOT.......AFTER WATCHING THE EPISODE I ALSO WANT TO DO ORGANIC FARMING AND WILL ADVICE ALL FARMERS NEAR BY ME.BUT SIR MOST OF FARMERS NEAR OR IN MY VILLAGE ARE ILLITERATE,THEY WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THE METHOD OR TYPE OF CULTIVATION THEY ONLY DO BY LOOKING EACH OTHER FARMING .THEY ALSO WILL NOT TRY TO EXPERIMENT IT ON THEIR LAND  MY VILLAGE AREA IS NOT VERY DEVELOPED.SO I WANT TO TRY IT ON MY LAND AND SHOW IT TO ALL THE FARMERS IN MY AREA.SIR I DONT KNOW HOW TO DO THE ORGANIC FARMING AND MAINLY HOW TO CONTROL PEST WITHOUT USING PESTICIDES..SO IF U CAN SEND SOME IDEAS OR NAME OF A WEBSITE WHICH CAN HELP ME SO I CAN DO THE FARMING AND CAN EXPLAIN IT TO ALL ILLITERATE FARMERS VERY EASILY .I M FROM ORISSA IM IN GOA NOW SIR AND MY FATHER DO FARMING IN MY VILLAGE HE IS ALSO A GOVT SERVANT.ANOTHER THING SIR I SUGGEST U FOR A EPISODE RELATED THE PROBLEMS OF FARMERS IN INDIA. EVERY YEAR MANY FARMERS ARE DOING SUICIDE DUE TO NOT GETTING FACILITY FROM GOVT AND MANY PROBLEMS. ONE DAY OUR EX PRIMEMINISTER LALBAHADUR SASTRI JI HAS SAID JAI JAWAN JAI KISAN AND THESE TWO ARE IN THE MOST PROBLEM IN INDIA .ITS A REQUEST TO SEND SOME IDEAS ABOUT IT .HANDS UP TO U FOR STARTING A NEW REVOLUTION IN INDIA FOR THE MANKIND.THANK U SIR.