-Down to Earth Sri Lanka has found itself in an economic crisis in pursuit of producing 100% organic food ‘Lankan food crisis shows perils of organic farming’. This was the headline of a column by Indian economist Swaminathan Anklesaria Aiyar column published in a national daily recently. Aiyar’s article analysed the Sri Lankan food crisis, which has been triggered by the President’s recent decision to shift from chemical to organic farming. While the...
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UN Food Systems Summit marginalizes human rights and disappoints, say experts
-United Nations Human Rights Office of The High Commissioner GENEVA 22 SEPTEMBER 2021: On the eve of the Food Systems Summit, UN human rights experts are deeply concerned that the event will not be a “people’s summit” as promised. They are worried that the Summit will instead leave behind the most marginalized and vulnerable people. According to the three human rights experts, who were involved in the Summit preparation, “The Summit claims...
More »Most households in rural Bihar faced livelihood crisis during the first wave of COVID-19, reveals a recent study
The pandemic's first wave had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural workers in Bihar (including the self-employed) last year, according to a survey based research, jointly done by economists from Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia and the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development. A recent press note issued by the authors of the study shows that almost 94.4 percent of the households participating...
More »Lessons from India’s food security response -Bishow Parajuli
-The Hindu Government measures to tackle the food crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic were effective With a reduction in COVID-19 infections as the second wave weakens in India, it is important to focus on the pandemic’s disruptive impact on the food security and livelihoods of the poor and marginalised. The deadly virus has been around for two years and it is not clear as to how and when it will end. However, we...
More »Making Ethanol from Rice Hurts India’s Poor -Soma Marla
-Newsclick.in Government must explore non-conventional resources to achieve energy security. Its current policy to blend ethanol and biodiesel helps the biofuel industry at the cost of food security. In a recent press conference, the Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said that in 2020-21 the Centre allocated about 78,000 tonnes of rice from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) stocks to distilleries to produce ethanol. The distilleries got rice at a subsidised Rs.20...
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