Some 800 million people in the world were malnourished even before the food and economic crises hit.  Now a push to confront this longer-term problem is picking up steam. Leaders at recent global gatherings agreed to back a multibillion dollar initiative to boost agriculture and food security in low-income countries. Discussions on the overall design and level of funding are continuing. In September, the G20 asked the World Bank to...

The Indo-Asean FTA provides an opportunity to be more engaged with the region This is an important week for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Over the weekend, at the Fourth East Asia Summit in Thailand, he will witness the final fruition of the second most important foreign policy initiative he took during his first term in office — the India-Asean Free Trade Agreement. This should ensure he will be in better...

The economic turmoil sweeping the globe has lead to a sharp spike in hunger affecting the world’s poorest, uncovering a fragile global food system requiring urgent reform, according to a report issued today by two United Nations agencies. The combination of the food and economic crises have pushed more people into hunger, with the number of hungry expected to top 1 billion this year, according to the Food and Agriculture...

Loss in food grains estimated at 16 million tonnes  Overall Kharif output can fall by 15 per cent Call for long-term strategy to tackle vagaries of monsoon Erratic monsoon this kharif could reduce the agricultural crop growth to -2 per cent year-on-year, down from an earlier estimate of 1.4 per cent, according to a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) report released here. The report, “Drought in...

Fairness in land acquisition is difficult to achieve A market’s charm, leaving out cases of distress sale, lies in the fact that it ensures for individuals the right to refuse unacceptable transactions. This observation, though pedestrian, has implications for the controversies surrounding the use of agricultural land for industrial growth in Bengal. Indeed, many — the present author included — have argued in favour of land acquisition through markets, for...