In a reformist move long recommended by various economists and panels, the government has set up a task force to create a way to directly transfer cash to the ultimate beneficiaries of various subsidy schemes, which are, at best, messy and, at worst, ineffective. The task force will be headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. A pilot will be rolled out in the next four...

Farmers are planning to chart their requirements and compile a model election manifesto for political parties to consider. The model manifesto will be released ahead of the parties making their poll promises public, according to the Federation of Tamil Nadu Agriculturalists Association secretary C. Nallasami. Addressing the media here on Saturday Mr. Nallasami pointed out that farmers, whether they were raising food crops or cash crops, were facing hardship all through the...

Agriculture department confirms high pesticide residues THE country’s regulators have failed to check the flow of pesticides into the food chain, suggests a monitoring report of the Department of Agriculture and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the country’s premier institute. Fruits, vegetables, poultry and milk are all laced with high pesticide residues —much above the maximum residue limits (MRL) set by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act of 1954. Samples of...

Scale Up Nutrition coordinates global action to root out under-nutrition. This week in New Delhi, nearly 1,000 international officials, scientists, advocates and development specialists are coming together to discuss how agriculture can be leveraged to improve nutrition and health. Nearly one-sixth of the people in our world are affected by chronic hunger. At any time, around a quarter of all children suffer from under-nutrition. Not only are they more likely to die,...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed a conference on ‘Leveraging agriculture for improving nutrition and health’ in New Delhi, organised by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), as part of International Policy Consultation. “Nutrition and health are issues are particularly topical today as the world faces rising food prices in many countries and there is growing recognition that climate change may endanger food security in many developing countries. Leveraging agriculture for...