The wheel has turned a full circle. India, which was synonymous with hunger and malnutrition in the West, is now being called upon to export from its pile of food grain to ease the shortfall in overseas markets. French Food, Agriculture & Fisheries Minister Bruno Le Maire broached the issue during a meeting with KV Thomas, India's minister of state for food and agriculture, last week. The issue is expected to be...

Ample monsoon rains and higher prices of farm goods are likely to lift Indian fertiliser demand in 2010/11 by 13 percent to a record 60 million tonnes, testing local fertiliser makers' ability to raise output in sync with the demand, industry officials said. India's June-Sept monsoon rains, a key factor in determining food grain production and fertiliser demand in the country, were 2 percent above normal in the current year, weather office data showed....

Higher support prices for kharif pulses has resulted in a sharp jump in acreage under cultivation and production is estimated to rise to 6 million tonnes in the kharif season of the 2010-11 crop year The support price for wheat is likely to be hiked by a nominal Rs 20 in the rabi season, but the procurement rate for pulses could go up sharply, as the government wants to reduce dependence...

India will soon be the first country in the world “to enact a food security entitlement act under which every family below the poverty line will get 35 kg of grain”, says M.S. Swaminathan who is in Canada to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. One of the pioneers of the Green Revolution in India, Swaminathan said India cannot depend on volatile global markets to ensure its food security and...

As the common man continues to reel under the spiraling rise in prices of essential commodities especially key food items and vegetables the forever-rising food inflation is posing a serious challenge to policy makers. Though top government officials, including the Finance Minister and the Chairman of the Planning Commission have repeatedly assured that the food prices will soon stop rising, in reality it has gone the other way.   The rising spree...