-The Financial Express The domestic prices of key agricultural commodities were below the export-parity prices during most of the time in the decade 2004-2014, according to a new study by Icrier and World Bank. However, the export/import opportunities were not always used as restrictive trade policies played spoilsport; for instance in the 2007-08 global food crisis, though rising global prices made many Indian products export-competitive, rice and wheat exporters among others were...
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The draft laws for organic foods, if cleared, will adversely affect small farmers -Chandra Bhushan
-Hindustan Times The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s new certification regulation is going to hinder the growth of the sector. Instead of targeting small farmers, why not make laws that require mandatory labelling of foods grown with pesticides, chemicals or GMO etc? The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) recently announced the Draft Food and Standards (Organic Food) Regulations, 2017, aimed at curbing sale of fake organic...
More »A new movement is born -Yogendra Yadav
-The Tribune Over 150 farmers’ bodies have come together on a common agenda IS the farmers’ movement in India entering a new phase? Six weeks is too short a window to answer this question with certainty. But the nature of farmers’ protest across the country since the beginning of farmers’ strike in Punjab shows signs of something new. This impression is confirmed in a two-week journey connecting farmers, organisations and movements across six...
More »India's children need a better deal -V Ramani
-The Indian Express For a country that aims to be a regional power, the data on child nutrition confirms that the situation is abysmal. Save for Bihar, six of the seven states with the highest incidence of stunting, for example, are ruled by the BJP or the BJP and its allies – Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar. After an agonising wait of over ten years, the...
More »When too much is too little -Sanjay Kumar
-The Hindu The issue of food wastage must be fully understood, so that an effective strategy can be drawn up When Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought up the issue of food wastage on his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme about two months ago, he endorsed a valid point when he asked people not to waste food. Though he raised an extremely critical issue of national importance, he could also have used the occasion...
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