India is likely to harvest a record 16.5 million tonne pulses this year. This was announced by the Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar, at the 6th Agriwatch Global Pulses Summit here today. The Minister said that though India presently imports a large quantity of pulses, the use of new production technologies and agronomic practices, and government support will lead to self sufficiency. Shri Pawar said that more aggressive promotion of available technologies...

Few politicians can match Sharad Pawar when it comes to having one’s finger on the aam aadmi’s pulse, er pulses.At a time Indian entrepreneurs are manufacturing Jaguars and Landrovers abroad, the Union agriculture and food minister wants them to cultivate daal overseas.That would not only help fulfil the growing domestic demand for lentils, Pawar declared today, but also curb the environment-unfriendly dependence on animal proteins.At the sixth Agriwatch Global Pulses...

The Global Hunger Index report paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. WITH the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals just five years away, the 2010 Global Hunger Index report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) paints a gloomy picture of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Some 29 countries in these regions, it says, have levels of hunger that are alarming or extremely alarming....

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...

With more than 400 million Indians going to bed hungry each day, food security has become a crucial issue. On June 4 last year, the president made an announcement: “My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban...