Kisan Swaraj Yatra (rally for farmers' sovereignty), a conglomeration of farmers' organisations, consumers and civil society groups, is to make a presentation on the agriculture crisis to the National Advisory Council (NAC). They are seeking a Farmers' Income Commission and social security legislation for farmers.Representatives of the Yatra, who met NAC chairperson Sonia Gandhi here on Saturday to highlight the income insecurity of farmers, will be invited to make a...

The UN climate summit reached the Cancun Agreement here early Saturday - but there was no mention of the extent to which industrialised countries would commit to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol's commitment period ends.Nor was there any agreement on a second commitment period of the protocol, only a decision to keep talking about it. The Kyoto Protocol is currently the only legally binding...

Representatives from more than 60 countries gathered in Rome today for a United Nations-backed meeting to promote the international treaty considered essential for the conservation and use of the world’s threatened plant genetic resources.The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was adopted by the Conference of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2001 to facilitate international cooperation and the fair exchange of genetic resources.The treaty’s Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF)...

The papers in this volume, as indicated in the preface, are not envisaged to be mere academic exercises; they are intended to provide the basis for informed discussions among key stakeholders and with policymakers involved in the areas related to agriculture, food security and rural development in India. If achieving self-sufficiency in food is the primary goal of agriculture policy, poverty alleviation is the second. As has been pointed out,...

Global agriculture contributes in the region of 17 percent to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, but according to the World Bank, climate smart agriculture techniques can both reduce emissions and meet the challenge of producing enough food for a growing world population."As much as agriculture is part of the problem, it is also part of the solution," said Inger Anderson, the World Bank's vice president on sustainable...