-Moneycontrol.com Here is a counterintuitive set of data, which indicates a decoupling of rains and inflation With the monsoon delayed in June and being unevenly distributed in July, everyone has been worrying about a fall in food production and resultant inflation. After all, we keep hearing that India’s agriculture is mostly rainfed. Then, the reasoning goes like this–poor rains equals poor harvest equals high inflation.  But does poor rains really cause inflation? Here is a...

-The Hindu Western nations have started reinterpreting the Paris deal and look to downgrade their commitments Countries in Europe led by Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are cranking up their coal plants again. Coal exports to Europe are surging. Fossil fuels are making a comeback and countries are rejecting the European Union (EU)’s plan to reduce natural gas consumption by 15%. Dutch, Polish and other European farmers are protesting against emission cuts...

-Press release by FAO dated 6 July 2022 The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition Rome/New York: The number of people affected by hunger globally rose to as many as 828 million in 2021, an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (1), according to a United...

-The Hindu It is ad hoc, hurts farmers’ incomes, and may not impact inflation much  Over the last month, the government has banned the export of wheat and imposed quantitative restrictions on outbound sugar shipments. The wheat export ban came within days of a push to enhance India’s wheat supplies to the rest of the world after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This is a time of persistently high inflation, spurred by rising...

-Down to Earth Low returns and high risks from alternative crops among reasons past efforts failed, says report The Commission for Agricultural Cost and Prices (CACP) has recommended promotion of crop diversification, favouring oilseed crops amid the global inflation in oilseeds and vegetable oils prices. Global inflation creates a structural risk as vegetable oils account for about half of India’s agricultural import, subsequently raising the country’s agri-import bill, the commission wrote in its...