To the price-hit common man, food inflation easing from nearly 20 per cent to a little above 16 per cent is a statistical mirage. And the president's call for a "second Green Revolution" will seem talk in the air. Politicians, nonetheless, are battling each other instead of high prices. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has faced opposition snipers and the Congress's friendly fire. Tackling prices, he retorts, is the government's collective...

Post-independence policies have taken away all securities of the small farmer Historically, compared to other developing economies, India has had relatively smaller agricultural land-holdings. Mixed farming and animal tending was the backbone of small and marginal rain-fed agriculture. Diverse food crops along with animal produce ensured relatively balanced nutrition. But policies in independent India reduced diversity while increasing the market dependence of small farms. Small farmers became victims of policies favouring...

Hit by soaring food inflation, the government moved into urgent damage control mode on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepping into the frame and deciding to meet chief ministers to urge stronger anti-hoarding measures and improved lifting and distribution of foodgrains. The Centre plans to quickly release 2-3 million tonnes of wheat and rice in the retail market, using its own agencies like NAFED and NCCF besides PDS outlets....

The Centre on Monday partially blamed the ban imposed by the Uttar Pradesh government on processing of raw sugar for the sudden spurt in the sugar price, which had touched Rs. 50 a kg in Delhi markets, but could not say when the situation would ease. Speaking to journalists here, Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said imported raw sugar was lying at the Kandla port for the last...

The national biofuel policy announced by the government last week is well-intentioned but is not really practical. It aims for achieving a 20 per cent blending of biofuels with petrol as well as diesel by 2017. Given that even the 5 per cent ethanol doping target — raised to 10 per cent last October — is yet to be achieved makes the target quite unachievable. The sugar industry, which is...