So it's not going to be a normal monsoon . That's hardly surprising. Indian rainfall is erratic in four out of 10 years. About 80% of our land mass is highly vulnerable to Drought, floods and cyclones. 50 million Indians are exposed to Drought every year. The agriculture ministry says 68% of India's sown area is subject to Drought in varying degrees. Annual average rainfall is 1,160 mm. However, 85% of...
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A spoonful of policy
-The Business Standard Remember the food riots of 2008? Is the world heading towards another food crisis? That, worryingly, seems to be the conclusion that a new publication on food prices and availability in the next decade (2011-20), issued jointly by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), arrives at. The OECD-FAO report forecasts agricultural commodity prices, in real terms,...
More »Monsoon brings hope for Bihar's Drought-hit farmers
-IANS Mahesh Sharma is a happy man. A farmer in Naubatpur near Patna, he was pushed into near destitution after facing two consecutive years of Drought. But with showers lashing Patna and many parts of Bihar for the past few days, the rain gods have given him the Indian farmers' staple diet - hope. "Rains are like gold for us. We welcomed the showers by preparing a sweet-dish. Unlike the last...
More »Food Security: Messy Jam, But Here’s a Map by Ashok Gulati
Ensuring food security to all is one of India’s top policy agendas today. Given a large mass of poverty in the country, it is not surprising and no one would perhaps disagree with the need to achieve this as soon as possible. But the varied policy instruments that can be used towards achieving this goal draw sharp differences among the stakeholders. What is food security? The World Food Summit of 1996...
More »Sapped of life: India’s tribal leaf gatherers by Sarada Lahangir
For the tribal women of Orissa, plucking leaves off the tendu shrub is a way of life. Laborious and long hours spent on the job barely give the impoverished community enough to survive. Nuapada: There is a local song that poignantly captures the reality of the tendu leaf gatherers of Orissa’s Nuapada district: Chho chhoko, bhunji loka, patar tudle laagsi bhoka (we are Bhunj tribals/while plucking tendu leaves, we feel hunger). I...
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