-Deccan Herald In accordance with a new agroecology initiative within the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, by using the agroecological methods, small farmers are key to feeding the world, Nafeez Ahmed notes. Modern industrial agricultural methods can no longer feed the world, due to the impacts of overlapping environmental and ecological crises linked to land, water and resource availability. The stark warning comes from the new United Nations Special Rapporteur on the...

-Down to Earth India presents its case on potential damage posed by WTO's trade facilitation agreement; civil society groups support India India made a strong pitch for food stockpiling for public food security at the 41st session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) earlier this month at the FAO headquarters in Rome. The meeting of the intergovernmental body, attended by representatives of governments, UN food agencies, civil society and private...

-The Business Standard The NDA is looking to reduce fiscal deficit not by chopping social sector spending but by paring it down Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is fairly confident the government will meet this year's fiscal deficit target. At 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product the deficit looked looked like a bit of stretch in July but the food subsidy, for one, is not going to balloon as in previous years. The...

-The Business Standard   NC Saxena, a former member of the National Advisory Council believes that the regulatory regime in the states continues to be oppressive. In an e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis, Saxena says that the fundamental problem in India is the low tax-GDP ratio and neither the last government nor the current one seems interested in increasing revenues. Edited excerpts: * The new government appears to be watering down a lot...

-The New Indian Express PALAKKAD: With only ten days remaining for the announced date for implementing the UPA government's ambitious social welfare programme, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) on November 1, the state government is still not sure about its implementation. At a time when district supply officers are busy sealing NFSA on BPL, Anthyodaya and other special cards to distinguish cards eligible for rice under NFSA, they are kept in...