-The Hindu   India will support the removal of food export restrictions for humanitarian purposes during the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington later this week. The Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, will attend the two-day meeting on September 23-24. According to the agenda note prepared for the meeting, India has welcomed the recommendations of the Development Working Group (DWG) of the Agriculture ministerial. One of these...

PMO suggests adopting cluster approach to boost food output; FCI asked to enhance storage capacity With the National Food Security Bill set to be introduced in Parliament, the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has taken initiatives to boost the farm sector, including steps to increase the production of pulses and oilseeds. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), after a meeting on Tuesday to review the agriculture sector, has asked the agriculture...

Managing our soil and water resources in a sustainable and equitable manner needs a new political vision, which can be expressed through the proposed Land Acquisition Bill and the recently formed Global Soil Partnership. On the basis of a proposal I had made three years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a Global Soil Partnership for Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation at a multi-stakeholder conference, held...

Studies by the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Academic Forum on food security issues in the three countries suggest that providing food access works best when backed by cash transfers. A paper on food security brought out by the UNDP’s Brasilia-based International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG), under the Forum, shows that despite the great strides in food production made by India people in this country are just not eating enough. Citing indices...

-The Telegraph   The Centre tonight banned onion exports to check rising retail prices, re-imposing the curbs only six months after it lifted them following a dip. At the same time, it lifted four-year restrictions on overseas sale of wheat and non-basmati rice to ease storage problems following record production last season. “Onion exports have been banned with immediate effect. The ban will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis,” food minister K.V. Thomas said...