World Bank president Robert Zoellick recently listed nine measures that the G20 should adopt under its current French presidency. These range from improving information about grain stocks and developing better weather-forecasting methods to strengthening social safety nets for the poor and helping small farmers benefit from tenders from humanitarian purchasers such as the World Food Programme . These measures tackle only the symptoms of the global food system's weaknesses, leaving the...

Governments rarely shy away from showering farm sops but Karnataka’s BJP government hopes to reap gains with a debatable claim: that its policies have helped reduce farmer suicides. State agriculture minister Umesh Katti recently reeled off in the Assembly suicide figures (see chart) that show a declining trend since 2008-09, when the B.S. Yeddyurappa cabinet took power. The assertion that the slide is because of the government’s efforts follows an agriculture...

The policy is to promote specific high-value segments within agriculture, where corporate houses have major profit interests. A COMMON compliment that Pranab Mukherjee's Union Budget for 2011-12 received from the media was its proclaimed “friendliness” to agriculture and rural areas. It was not just the media; members of India Inc. welcomed the Budget as “focussed” on agriculture. However, a close look at the Budget estimates reveals a different picture. Public...

Ashok Gehlot's Budget speech lays emphasis on social welfare measures Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's Budget speech in the Rajasthan Assembly here on Wednesday laid emphasis on “positive results” of the State Government's work during the previous year for development of various sectors, and made a number of announcements for the welfare of different sections of society. In a significant declaration, Mr. Gehlot said a State-level Advisory Council would be constituted shortly in...

Jairam intervenes after Nitish tells him that he is opposed to such trials Even as the moratorium on commercialisation of Bt brinjal stands, Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) to immediately withdraw its permission to Monsanto for field trials of Bt maize in Bihar. Bt brinjal was the first, and maize is the second food crop for which the GEAC has given...