-The Indian Express Farmers are simply not among those benefiting from the higher prices of their produce. While a fall in headline inflation numbers will ensure some breathing space for embattled policy makers, the sharp surge in food inflation to a 41-month high of close to 20 per cent in November hides an even more disturbing fact - that despite the consistent spike in the year-on-year agri price levels at the...
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Farmers won't be able to sell you veggies any time soon -Chittaranjan Tembhekar
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan seems to be dithering on whether or not farmers should be allowed to sell their crop outside the agriculture produce marketing committee (APMC) setup. This means, consumers may not be able to get their hands on reasonably-priced vegetables and fruits brought in by cultivators in the near future. Chavan said the government needs more time to discuss the issue with various stakeholders. "Since...
More »Paradox of Poverty amid Plenty -Jaswant Kaur
-The New Indian Express Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global hunger. The index is calculated as an average of three indices-undernourishment, underweight children and low child mortality rate-and is measured on a...
More »How to feed nine billion people, and feed them well -Zareen Bharucha
-The Conversation Resource-intensive agriculture, despite its productivity, nevertheless has failed to feed the world's current population, never mind the nine billion people expected by 2050. This system that currently fails both people and planet is ripe for revision. We need to be more ambitious, to go beyond simply producing more. We need to produce more of what's good - not just cereal staples, but nutrition-dense foods - in ways that can prevent...
More »WTO has a point in objecting to India’s food security act -Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
-The Hindustan Times Misunderstandings about the World Trade Organization (WTO) are pervasive. The media coverage of the recent WTO meetings at Bali has added to the confusion. The bone of contention was the government procurement of the food grains in India under the National Food Security Act. The final outcome is a stopgap arrangement that has bought the Indian government some time; most importantly, it does not have to undertake any...
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