Some 48,315 tonnes of wheat procured by the Punjab government is to be fed to cattle after being declared unfit for human consumption. The stock, enough to feed around 595,000 people through the public distribution system (PDS) for a year, had piled up over the previous three years. Officials at the Food Corporation of India (FCI), which declared the grains unfit after an inquiry in March, said Punjab’s procurement agencies had...

The National Advisory Council's proposals on the Food Security Bill represent a bad deal for the poor. The struggle for an effective and equitable Food Security Bill (FSB) has received a setback with the disappointing proposals put forward by the National Advisory Council. There is a disturbing disjuncture between what is being claimed and the actual implications of the proposals. Indeed it may be said that the NAC proposals create new...

The goal of food for all can be achieved only through greater and integrated attention to production, procurement, preservation and public distribution. The President, in her address to Parliament on June 4, 2009, announced: “My Government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide a statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in...

The United Progressive Allianace (UPA) government at the Centre has asked the Union Agriculture Ministry to provide diesel subsidy to farmers along with the Minimum Support Price (MSP). Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada announcing the new method said, now the government wants to provide compensation to farmers on diesel along with the MSP. Mr Prasada asked his ministry to consider making a provision for the increased price of diesel, while...

The recent spike in world food prices has further widened the gap between the developed and the developing economies. While, over 70 per cent of the world's population resides in poor countries, it has access to less than 40 per cent of the world's resources such as water, irrigated land, power, etc. This is a result of inconsistent economic progress (post-colonialisation birth pangs), rampant population growth and distractions such as...