-The Guardian Rice conservationist Debal Deb grapples with 'mindless Indian elite' to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties   Fifty years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste - rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had...

-United States Department of Agriculture (Economic Research Report)   The Indian State of Chhattisgarh implemented a number of well-publicized reforms to improve distribution of subsidized food grains, many of which have been incorporated into the recently passed National Food Security Act. ERS researchers show that food aid consumption in the State increased in response to these reforms, and that the increase in food aid helped improve food security in the State. Please...

-The Hindu Business Line The focus of land reforms should change from ceilings to minimum size A significant 72 per cent of farmers ‘like' farming as a profession, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). This is greater than the 60 per cent figure reported in an official 2003 National Sample Survey round. True, the two surveys may not be entirely comparable...

-The Business Standard Inflation has cooled in recent months but the next monsoon holds the key. With fear of an El Niño effect impacting it, academicians and policy makers are worried about the possible impact on farm output and food inflation. Prabhu Pingali, director of the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative at Cornell University and former director of the agricultural and development economics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization,...

-The Hindu But it won't address hunger and malnutrition, and protein and micronutrient deficiency: eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan Bangalore: The national Food Security Act marks an important first step in the fight to eliminate hunger in India, but much more remains to be done, eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan has said. Addressing the ninth edition of the Nutra India Summit organised by the International Society for Nutraceuticals, Nutritionals and Naturals, Prof. Swaminathan...