-The United Nations Global cereal production is expected to increase by 7 per cent in 2013 compared to last year, the United Nations food agency said today, but warned that in spite of a boost in supply, various regions including Central Africa, West Africa and Syria are still affected by food insecurity. In its Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) forecasts that cereal production this year...

-PTI NEW DELHI: India is likely to achieve record production of foodgrains and other crops in Kharif season of 2013-14 because of good monsoon that has led to the doubling of sowing area, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today. "All kharif crops put together, acreage has reached 401.69 lakh hectares as on July 5, as against 215.6 lakh hectares in the same period last year. This is a very very good picture....

-Frontline Professor Sukhpal Singh, a faculty member of the Centre for Management of Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been researching and documenting the process of contract farming and food supply chains in India for more than a decade. He is of the view that the small farmer is being excluded in the method currently in place, which defeats the very purpose of improving Indian agriculture. Sukhpal Singh,...

-The Economic Times CHENNAI: India's patent appeals board has denied Monsanto a patent for a genetically-engineered method of increasing climate resilience in plants. The decision is significant not only for Monsanto's loss of possible exclusivity in an increasingly important segment but also for the interpretation of India's home-grown clauses in patent law - these are unpopular with global companies - for the first time in the case of plants. The Intellectual Property...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: After the ambitious food security law, the UPA government is preparing another populist scheme to expand the supply of subsidised edible oil and pulses through the countrywide network of ration shops in the next two to three months. "It will be the next major thing. We are working at the earliest. We propose that state governments purchase pulses and edible oil either through imports or locally. We...