It is time for us to take a hard look at our agricultural system. We are not yet reliving the food crisis of 2007-08 , but food prices are surging, with global prices for wheat and maize rising by 75% and 60%, respectively, from June to December 2010. Meanwhile, nearly 1 billion people worldwide are going hungry. The obvious solution to many of our food-related ills is to accelerate agricultural growth....

Buoyed by high foodgrains production, the country's farm sector is expected to grow at 5.4 per cent in the current financial year, as against 0.4 per cent a year ago. A likely growth in the "agriculture, forestry and fishing sector" is due to an estimated higher production of rice, wheat, pulses, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane and some horticultural crops, according to Advance Estimate released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO). The foodgrains production...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asked States to consider waiving mandi taxes, octroi and local taxes for taming inflation, which affected the poor “harder” and posed a serious threat to the country's growth momentum. He said much of the responsibility for checking price rise lay with the States. “Much of what needs to be done... lies in the domain of State governments... There seems to be a strong case for waiving...

India's food prices are likely to ease, bringing down food inflation from stubbornly high levels, over the next two months as supplies of onions and other vegetables are expected to pick up, industry officials said Thursday. The country's food inflation rate surged to more than 18% in December as vegetable prices, particularly those of onions, spiked after unseasonal rain damaged crops. India's food inflation rate has slightly eased since then, but...

Food inflation soared to 17.05 per cent for the week ended January 22, rising for the second straight week, on the back of costlier vegetables, fruits and milk. Food inflation rose by 1.48 percentage points from 15.57 per cent in the previous week. The food inflation last year had stood at 20.56 per cent. On an annual basis, onion prices rose by 130.41 per cent in the third week of January,...