In the run up to the next global jamboree on climate change, in the tourism-cum-summitry town of Cancun, Mexico, the government has come out with an Indian view of global warming, based on indigenous research. The upshot of the effort is a much more worrisome portrayal of the challenge of climate change. The Indian studies forecast that mean temperature will rise in India by around 2ºC by 2030, rather than...

The green revolution has largely mitigated food security concerns even though flawed distribution and food inflation keep a section of the population underfed. However, nutritional security still eludes most people, including many of those who eat enough cereal. Much of this nutritional deficiency is the result of an insufficient intake or the consumption of poor-quality protein. Food scientists believe that promoting fish consumption can play a key role in alleviating protein...

A high-level working group of the Government of India has approved the idea of outbound foreign direct investment by Indians in the production of pulses and oilseeds aimed at meeting domestic demand. This is not a new idea. Since arable land in India is fast shrinking and efforts to lift the output of pulses and oilseeds, besides some other essential commodities, are not bearing fruit, investing in land elsewhere for...

The Union Food and Agriculture Ministry has turned down requests from Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for resuming export of non-basmati rice. The government has banned export of wheat and non-basmati rice from February 2, 2007 and April 1, 2008 to stabilise prices of these commodities in the domestic market and to maintain sufficient stocks for ensuring food security in the country. Not acceded to “Requests were received from the State governments of...

The Director-General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, Dr. Jacques Diouf, announced at the Inter-Governmental Committee on World Food Security (CFS) that the combination of global food crisis and economic recession had taken the number of people affected across the world to over one billion. He described the number as “unacceptably high,” higher than in 1996 when the heads of states and governments committed themselves to reducing hunger by...