-The Economic Times The monsoon made a dream start this year. Bountiful rainfall in June has prepared the ground for bumper harvest and lower food inflation. But don't celebrate. Look beyond the immediate future and good monsoon this year may not really be good news. It has merely delayed an agricultural crisis, which our complacent policymakers perhaps need to jolt them into action. With food demand rising in step with the growing...

-IPS News ROME: Thirty-eight countries were recognised for the first time on Sunday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation for cutting in half the prevalence of people suffering from undernourishment, one of three targets under the first Millennium Development Goal. Of those countries, 18 also achieved the tougher World Food Summit Goal of halving the absolute numbers of hungry people: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cuba, Djibouti, Georgia, Ghana, Guyana, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Peru,...

-The Indian Express Trendsetters & tweakers Act one Chhattisgarh already has a food security law in place. It became last December the first state to pass a food security bill, which covers several sections not under existing schemes. The Act makes food entitlement a right and depriving anyone of that an offence. If PDS grains, for instance, are being diverted, the officials involved will face penal provisions. The Act also seeks to empower women...

-PTI MUMBAI: Severely hit by drought since the past few years, the Maharashtra government has outlined a Rs 60,000 crore programme which includes creating decentralised water storage to make the state drought free in three years. "Maharashtra is reeling under severe drought crisis. We have outlined an investment of Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years to ensure that Maharashtra is drought free," Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said at the 177th...

-The Hindu     UAS-Dharwad submitted the proposal three years ago DHARWAD: Sugarcane growers in the Sirsi-Yellapur belt are eager to know if the Congress government will approve a scheme that aims to conserve and promote ‘joni bella' - a special variety of jaggery. It has been three years since the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, sent a Rs. 1 crore proposal in this regard, which, if implemented, promises to boost the agrarian economy in...