Even as reports pour in of a softening of food price futures, the spectre of food price inflation haunts households across the country. But to imagine that the inflation genie can be put back into the bottle through legislative fiat is the height of parliamentary fantasy. The Estimates Committee of the Lok Sabha has recommended just that! It wants new legislation to check price rise of essential commodities by capping...

The G8 countries have promised to increase the spending on agricultural development by $20 billion over the next three years. The amount is woefully less than the $44 billion that will be needed each year to end malnutrition.  At the world leaders’ meeting in Copenhagen, it is imperative that governments pledge to adopt up-to-date technologies to boost food production as well as outweigh the negative impacts of climate change. A...

Transgenic Cotton being hastily pushed in India, says researcher Technological alternatives available to switch from conventional production NEW DELHI: A panel discussion on ‘GM Foods and Food Security’ held here on Thursday highlighted differing opinions on the controversial subject, although the majority opinion was in favour of GM crops. Participating in the discussion, organised by the Institute of Economic Growth, Ronald Herring of Cornell University pointed out that Bt Cotton in India played an...

The President of International Fund for Agricultural Development stresses that access to funds for developing countries will help them make ethical decisions in the quest for food security. Just days before the UN Climate Change summit at Copenhagen, Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), stresses that access to funds for developing countries will help them make ethical decisions in the quest for food security. Nwanze was...

Without crop varieties adapting to extremes of weather, feeding world population will be difficult Shortage of water resources will be one of the greatest problems NEW DELHI: “The threat of climate change and its impact on agriculture is real. We have evidence that by 2025 in some parts of the world including India, parts of Asia and parts of Africa, crop yields will drop from anything between 20 and 40 per cent...