Record high food prices are putting added pressure on the United Nations agency that helps feed nearly 100 million of the world’s poorest people, with officials warning of a potential “perfect storm” combination of soaring costs, weather emergencies and political instability. “We are on red alert and we are continually assessing needs and reassessing plans and stand ready to assist,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran told the...
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Excess supply leads to fall in onion prices; farmers protest
Onion prices continued to slide in the wholesale market at Gultekdi Market Yard on Monday due to excess supply of the commodity, prompting farmers to stage strong protest demanding higher procurement price by commission agents. Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) The agitation started early in the morning and farmers disrupted supply of vegetables and other commodities to the wholesale market. They were called for a meeting by the commission agents...
More »Factories refuse pay revised prices to sugarcane farmers by Nikhil Deshmukh
Despite the decision taken at a meeting of representatives of farmers, co-op sugar factories and the government, some factories in Ahmednagar district are not paying the revised advances to sugarcane farmers. At the meeting held in Pune on December 19, it was a decision was taken to revise the advances to Rs 1,800 per tonne in Pune region and Rs 1,750 in Marathwada, Khandesh and Vidarbha. However, the payment of...
More »The tenacity of hope by Dipankar Gupta
Since Cairo took to the streets, there is one question that comes up repeatedly in India. How have we been saved from such anarchy, in spite of our faltering democracy? True, Egypt's growth, between 5% and 7%, has been less spectacular than ours. But its per capita income swelled from $587 in 1981 to $1461 in 2001. Even its deficit as a percentage of GDP has fallen from 10.2% in...
More »Diluting the Right to Food by CP Chandrasekhar
The promise made by UPA II that it will ensure food security for Indians through legislation that guarantees the Right to Food seems, in its view, to have been an error. In a multi-stage process that reflects the pulls and pressures within the policy-making elite, the Food Security Bill has been diluted so much that it marks a reversal rather than an advance compared to the status quo. Let us...
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