CEOs need to accelerate their action plans to safeguard the production of commodities critical to the global population and economy as heat stress and drought risk rise around the world, according to PwC's
India will review bans on exports of wheat and basmati rice, but shipments of other grades of rice will not be allowed at least until November, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said. India last exported wheat in the 2003-04 fiscal year and became an importer in the past two years, but a bumper crop has helped the government purchase from local farmers a record 24.8 million tonnes of the staple this year. Pawar said on Thursday that a government panel, called the Empowered Group of Ministers , (EGoM), would soon consider lifting the ban on wheat exports.
It appears Mother Nature has at last answered the prayers offered for the last more than four years by our Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, for a second Green Revolution in agriculture so that foodgrains are available in plenty and it would no longer be necessary to import wheat from the world market at exorbitant prices as he had to do last year.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that red wheat would not be distributed through fair price shops from next month. Instead, good quality wheat procured on support price would be distributed under Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana. The Chief Minister reviewed the implementation of Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana here at Mantralaya today. He said that distribution of procured quality wheat would be started by organising a function at every district headquarter from next month.
Wheat procurement crossed 210 lakh tonnes till April 25 against 101 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, helped by record production and higher minimum support price (MSP) to farmers. The Centre's wheat procurement had reached an all-time high last week by surpassing the earlier record of 206.3 lakh tonnes achieved in 2001-02. The procurement by Food Corporation of India and other state agencies reached 210.17 lakh tonnes till Sunday compared to 101.66 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period, a government official said.
In Mexico City, mass protests about the cost of tortillas. In West Bengal, disputes over food-rationing. In Senegal, Mauritania, and other parts of Africa, riots over grain prices. And in Yemen, children march in public to call attention to child hunger. This chain of events is in stark contrast to the falling food prices that consumers have come to expect over the past several decades.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has forecast that wheat production in Pakistan this year will decline slightly because of dry conditions in some areas and a reduced use of inputs. However, the production may remain slightly above the average for the past five years, according to FAO's
Gujarati farmers are known for their astute business sense. They invariably switch over to a crop that fetches them more money. Earlier, when the farmers in Gujarat found cotton cultivation more profitable than groundnut crop, they had started growing more cotton. This year, Gujarat farmers have taken to cultivation of wheat to reap a rich harvest.
How can countries cope in the short and medium term with the sharp rise in wheat prices? The global movements of the past suggest that in the case of wheat, prices are influenced by the stock and output policies of just a handful of countries. It would be dangerous for large countries like China and India to depend on the global market for their food security. And it is time world bodies consider establishing a global reserve to help food-deficit countries in times of crisis.
Farmers in Eastern Uttar Pradesh are increasingly choosing costlier mechanical ways of farming over less-expensive manual ways. Why? "Mechanical harvesting is easy and less time taking. At main harvesting time it's become very tough to get the labourers at right time. And if the harvesting process will get late it can harm our crops due to hailstorm and heavy rains. Due to these factors big and even small and marginal farmers are also moving towards mechanical harvesting" said a farmer living in eastern part of UP, Gyan Chand.
Blame your biofuel fixation, not India and China, Bush is told LOGIC and empirical facts do not necessarily form a part of United States President George W. Bush's assertions. Five years ago, he went to war against Iraq to unearth weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. And now, in 2008, he blames India's burgeoning middle classes for the northward
