Export curbs during 2008 crisis ‘exacerbated' situation. The Food and Agriculture Organisation on Wednesday said short-term policy actions, especially curbs on exports, could have harmful effects in the longer term and even aggravate the situation. In statement put on its website, the organisation, a body of the United Nations, pointed out at the 2007-08 crisis in the global food market as an example of how such decision can exacerbate the situation...

The present situation is different from that of 2007-2008, although recent climatic events may significantly reduce agricultural production next season. Must history always repeat itself? We are indeed on the verge of what could turn out to be another major food crisis. The FAO Food Price Index at the end of 2010 returned to its highest level. Drought in Russia and the export restrictions adopted by the government, together with...

Despite a sharp rebound in economic growth for many countries, global unemployment in 2011 is likely to continue at the record highs of the past three years, highlighting the need for long-term policies that prioritize quality job creation, according to the United Nations labour agency. Moreover, a narrow focus in developed economies on reducing fiscal deficits without addressing the challenge of job creation will further weaken employment prospects in 2011, the...

Fundamentally, our current crisis in food supplies as well as food prices arises out of the sidelining of Jawahar Lal Nehru’s dictum “everything else can wait but not agriculture”. Unfortunately, the last twenty years have been characterised by very low rates of agricultural growth, averaging around one percent per annum. This is almost equal to the rate of GDP growth during the last half century of British rule. In effect, in...

‘The least that every worker in field and factory is entitled to is a minimum wage which will enable him to live in modest comfort, and humane hours of labour which do not break his strength or spirit...,’ Jawaharlal Nehru declared stirringly in his presidential address to Congress in Lahore in 1929. Eight decades later, the Union government of free India resolved that it would not pay the minimum wage...