Economists’ report says tractors are used for just 178 hrs a year and electric motors are overused That Punjab faces an acute labour shortage each paddy season is a known and established fact. But not many know that 48.66 per cent of the total ‘family labour’ — members of a farmer’s family — available for agriculture remains underutilised in the state. A study of the resources employed in Punjab agriculture throws up...
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Biotech route to help curb food shortage by Gyanendra Shukla
Two walls of extremes are closing in fast on mankind. The spectre of climate change threatens agriculture, especially in developing countries where farming is dominated by smallscale farmers heavily relying on rainfall. Along with this, is the scourge of burgeoning population, which is likely swell to 9 billion in the next 40 years. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), about 14% of the 6.5-billion world population are affected by...
More »Prabhat Patnaik, Professor at CESP, Jawaharlal Nehru University and vice-chairman of the Planning Board of Kerala interviewed by R Krishna
Last month, leaders from 185 countries met in New York to take stock of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — which include, among other things, eradicating poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health — that were set in 2000 by the United Nations. The aim was to achieve these goals by 2015. But 10 years down the line, the world is way behind targets in achieving...
More »What India’s growth story conceals by Abhijit Patnaik
India’s performance at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 has been its best so far – second on the medals list.However, another kind of ‘competition’ ranked 84 countries in accordance with achievements in a different field this week. India was a lowly 67th. The field was hunger, measured by combining the proportion of people undernourished, the proportion of underweight children and the child mortality rate. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2010 –...
More »Hunger remains despite high growth: US study
THE high economic growth in India, unlike in the case of China, has not translated into a rapid reduction of hunger in India, a US-based policy think-tank has said. India ranks 67th in an 84-country ranking and has more hungry people than its neighbouring countries. “Higher growth rates in India has not been translated into hunger reduction,” Ashok Gulati , Director Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said after the release...
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