Edible oil imports have surged to a record 9.24 million tonnes last year and were estimated to be nearly Rs 38,000 crore. They have emerged as the third most important import item, next only to petroleum products and gold. India is now the world’s largest importer of cooking fats, meeting more than half of its requirement through overseas supplies. Considering the country’s huge and fast-growing demand for cooking oils, such...
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India's oilseeds production dips to 249 lakh tonnes in 2009-10
India's oilseeds production dipped to 249.3 lakh tonnes in the crop year 2009-10, compared to 277.2 lakh tonnes in the previous year, Parliament was informed today. The country had produced 297.6 lakh tonnes of oilseeds in 2007-8, Minister of State for Agriculture K V Thomas said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. As a result of the fall in oilseeds production, the minister said, India has been facing shortage of edible...
More »Centre drafting new law to guarantee food security: Sonia Gandhi
The Central Government is drafting a new law that will guarantee food security to a majority of the population, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday. Addressing party delegates attending a daylong session of the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) at the Talkatora Stadium here, Gandhi said that a new food security law would create a more efficient and effective public distribution system. "All this will, hopefully ensure an end to malnutrition, which...
More »Government decides on major push for pulses
Raises support price by Rs 380/qtl; marginal rise for wheat. Pulses saw the highest rise of Rs 340- 380 per quintal in minimum support price (MSP), the government announcing these for the current rabi season. The decision is in line with government efforts to increase their sowing, to meet the increasing demand for the crop. The MSPs of masur and chana were increased by Rs 380 per qtl and Rs 340 per...
More »India drops two places in hunger index by Rahul Bedi
INDIA has dropped two places to rank 67th amongst 84 developing nations in the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2010, with alarmingly high levels of hunger, undernourished and stunted children and poorly fed women. It is home to 42 per cent of the world’s underweight children under the age of five, based on data from 2003-2008 in the report released by the Food Policy Institute in Washington...
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