The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is estimated to have incurred a financial loss of Rs 484.76 crore in 2010-11 due to damage to foodgrains and storage and transit loss, Food and Public Distribution minister K V Thomas said today. FCI, a nodal agency for procurement and distribution of foodgrains, is estimated to have lost Rs 484.76 crore in 2010-11, as against Rs 437.87 crore in the previous year, the minister...
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Of lucky numbers and others the FM can’t see by Biraj Patnaik
The Italian phrase "lascia il tempo que trova" (it leaves the air it finds) does a better job of describing Pranab Mukherjee's budget than India's corporate media would ever dare to do. To put it mildly, the budget this year, is yet again, an utter disappointment for the food and agriculture sectors. To begin with, flagship schemes like the midday meals and the Integrated Child Development Services did not, unlike in...
More »Small enterprises ideal for producing quality seeds for farmers in poorer countries – UN
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that small seed enterprises are the best way of ensuring the availability and quality of non-hybrid seeds for food and animal feed crops in developing countries.In a newly-published policy guide, FAO cited World Bank data that showed that up to 50 per cent of crop yield increases come from improved seeds, while farmers’ access to quality seeds is a key...
More »The siren song of cash transfers by Jayati Ghosh
Cash transfers cannot and should not replace the public provision of essential goods and services, but rather supplement them. Cash transfers are the latest fad of the international development industry, as the preferred strategy for poverty reduction. And now Indian policymakers are busy catching up. The idea was mooted in the Government's Economic Survey for 2010-11, and the Finance Minister made an explicit announcement in his budget speech for replacing some...
More »Agriculture reform key to India budget by James Lamont
Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, put the rural economy at the heart of a national budget on Monday, saying ridding the farm sector of crippling supply bottlenecks would be his “focus” in the coming fiscal year.A market-neutral budget supporting agriculture, welfare schemes and the extension of banking services to more people was designed to dispel any sense that the Congress party-led government was in drift after a series of high...
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