-Livemint.com We must raise procurement to prepare for a possible rise in inflation as global food supplies shrink Recent data on inflation suggests a softening of the trend of rising inflation in retail prices. Much of the inflation this year has been driven by rising food prices, particularly edible oil and more recently cereals, primarily wheat. This has followed the global trend in food prices, which softened last month, even though they...

-Livemint.com To ensure food security of India’s 1.4 billion people, a decision was taken to prohibit export of wheat in May following rising demand for Indian wheat amid the Russia-Ukraine war. But, this caused a jump in export demand for wheat flour The Union cabinet on Thursday approved placing restrictions on wheat flour, or atta, exports to curb rising prices and ensure food security for the poor. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs...

-Business Standard A victim of supply chain disruption is food. Even as the world looks towards India to fill the void created by the Russia-Ukraine war, a drop in paddy acreage is threatening to make the matter worse Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and amid challenges for global food supply, PM Narendra Modi declared that India was capable of "feeding the world". However, instead of feeding the world, the govt soon restricted...

-Livemint.com An uneven distribution of rainfall has left several key rice-producing states parched even as others had to battle excess water The patchy progress of the southwest monsoon this year has cast a long shadow on India’s kharif crop produce, particularly of rice, which is an important constituent of the government’s food distribution programmes. The threat comes right after wheat production in the rabi season took a hit from heatwaves and at...

-The Hindu Business Line Experts say current manual methods are error-prone, moot scientific process The advance crop estimate made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare usually differs between the first and subsequent three ones before it comes out with the final estimate. However, the difference has seldom caused problems in the agricultural markets or led to complaints of not reflecting what the trade has felt is the ground reality. But some...