-PTI UN body for development of agriculture IFAD today said small-holder farmers should be the starting point for sustainable development. Speaking at the 8th TAAS (Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences) foundation lecture, IFAD President, Kanayo Nwanze said, "... We see time and time again the transformation that occurs when development is sustainable and when local people are involved from the start...Our starting point for sustainable agricultural development must be small-holder farmers." Nwanze,...

-Deccan Chronicle Chennai: "With an estimated 8 billion mouths to feed by 2025, achieving zero hunger by that deadline is indeed challenging and this calls for arriving at precise solutions, particularly in ensuring access to nutritious food, not calories alone," said Dr M.S. Swaminathan, founder chairman of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai. "Family farming offers an effective and economic solution to help meet the challenge of making sure that...

-PTI India is asking for a change in the base year (1986-88) for calculating the food subsidies Supporting India's tough stand at WTO on the food security issue, UN body for development of agriculture IFAD today said ensuring food for its people is more important than creating jobs in certain other nations. "Creating jobs for some other country, while people are still hungry, doesn't make sense... If I was in the position of...

-The Deccan Herald The poverty line continues to be a conundrum. The fixing of the poverty line at Rs 47 for urban areas and Rs. 32 in rural areas per capita per day by the latest Rangarajan committee report, based on a person or family's spending per day (called ‘consumption expenditure') has again drawn vociferous criticism. All these years, this all important line has not been fixed in a rational manner, rendering...

-Down to Earth Civil society organisations claim private companies like Pepsi and Coca Cola are funding agencies partnering Indian health ministry The two-day South Asia conference on nutrition, currently on in Delhi, began on a controversial note on Wednesday. Some of the public health experts attending the conference under the aegis of Alliance Against Conflict of Interest (AACI) objected to the Indian health ministry hosting the event in collaboration with agencies funded...