About a third of all the food produced for human consumption each year – or roughly 1.3 billion tons – is lost or wasted, according to a new study commissioned by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The study, compiled by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology and unveiled today, finds that food waste is more of a problem in rich countries and food loss during production is...

We hear that endosulfan is banned globally and it is against Indian interests and that the European Union and the corporates are behind it. India is a big country and we do not know what happens in one area of the country or how New Delhi is responding to that. So let me try to walk you on this issue. I went to Kasargod as team member of Thanal, a...

Continuing with its social sector agenda, the Union Cabinet is expected to consider a proposal to provide health insurance to all workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The Cabinet will on Thursday consider a proposal to extent the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to MGNREGS. The scheme, as of now, is applicable only below the poverty line families. Under the scheme implemented in Public Private Partnership mode,...

According to the third advance estimate, India’s foodgrain production in the current farm year (to end in June 2011) will be a record 235.88 million tonnes, including an all-time high wheat output of 84.27 million tonnes against 81.47 million tonnes projected earlier. Ahead of the wheat harvest, the country had buffer foodgrain stock of 47 million tonnes at the start of 2011 in the central pool. A buffer close to double...

In early April, the government was sitting on a pile of 44 mt of wheat and rice, more than double of what is required for maintaining the buffer stock Every three or four years, India witnesses a boom-and-bust cycle in agriculture. In the trough, prices hot up and imports of foodgrains become necessary. At the crest, all that is forgotten, there is talk of exports and life moves on. Any thought...