Stability in markets will be determined by size of next year's crop The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned about a further increase in global food prices in 2011 if there is no significant increase in production of major food crops. In the latest edition of its “Food Outlook” report, the agency observed that the rise in global prices, all of which was accruing in the second half of 2010, owing...

The CAG indicts Uttarakhand for pursuing hydel power projects indiscriminately without concern for the environment. IN a severe indictment of the Uttarakhand government, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said it was pushing the State towards a major environmental catastrophe by following a highly ambitious hydropower policy. In a report titled “Performance Audit of Hydropower Development Through Private Sector Participation”, which was released recently, the CAG substantiates the allegations...

Global food import bills may pass the $1 trillion mark in 2010, a level not seen since food prices peaked in 2008, says a new United Nations report, which warns that harder times could be ahead without a major increase in food production next year. According to the latest edition of the Food Outlook report, released by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food import bills for the world's poorest...

The case of the Food Security Bill gets curiouser and curiouser.  What started off as a fight between universalization and targeting has ended (or so it would seem) in a complete victory in the National Advisory Council, Government of India (NAC) for targeting through universalization (if such a thing was possible), with the honourable exception of Prof Jean Dreze, who has to be commended for his ‘note of disagreement’. On...

Even as the state sugar commissionerate has predicted a surplus sugarcane crop this year, farmers have a different take. They allege that this is a “ploy by co-operatives and the commissionerate” so that defunct sugar mills can be started again. Also, sugar prices are likely to see a sharp fall in the wake of the forecast. As per the official figures, Maharashtra is likely to produce around 8.5 million tonnes of...