Ensuring food security to all is one of India’s top policy agendas today. Given a large mass of poverty in the country, it is not surprising and no one would perhaps disagree with the need to achieve this as soon as possible. But the varied policy instruments that can be used towards achieving this goal draw sharp differences among the stakeholders. What is food security? The World Food Summit of 1996...
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Hopes fading for climate agreement by Alister Doyle
* Only a less ambitious deal on climate change expected * Process is dead in the water - de Boer "Ask for a camel when you expect to get a goat," runs a Somali saying that sums up the fading of ambitions for United Nations talks on slowing climate change -- aim high, but settle for far less. Developing nations publicly insist the rich must agree far deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions,...
More »The coming crisis for rain-dependent India by M Rajshekhar
It's that time of the year when Kishore Lal Singh's eyes almost involuntarily scan the skies. The monsoons are coming. In the months ahead, for this Bhil farmer growing cotton, maize and soya south of the Malwa plateau in Madhya Pradesh, life will again hang on a knife's edge. If it rains well, his two bighas (about four basketball courts) of cotton will yield 1,000 kg. If not, he will...
More »In India's grain bowl, farms face threat from MNREGS
-Reuters Sitting at the edge of fields in the heart of India's grain bowl, Gurdayal Singh Malik shakes his head in resignation about the lack of workers needed for his 60-acre farm, blaming the government's flagship welfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), for the shortage. Ever since the start of the program, which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of...
More »Consolidating the gains
-The Business Standard Given the unchecked proliferation of central agricultural development schemes (totalling more than 50), Krishi Bhawan’s move to condense them into a few programmes, while leaving greater operational say to state governments, seems well-conceived. The Planning Commission has done well to readily agree to such a shift in approach from the 12th Plan, which starts next April. In fact, when Krishi Bhawan launched its flagship programme, the Rashtriya...
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