Food waste index report 2024
<p>The world wasted an estimated 19 per cent of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to this new report by the UNEP.</p>
<p>The world wasted an estimated 19 per cent of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons, according to this new report by the UNEP.</p>
This paper estimates and compares the paid-out cost of cultivation of wheat in India, the most state-protected crop, during the input subsidy regime of the 1970s and 1980s and after its abolition in the 1990s, when economic reforms were initiated. The study uses the valuable time series information collected as part of the "comprehensive scheme' of the ministry of agriculture.
This paper discusses the various factors that have been identified as responsible for the current global crisis in the availability of food and for the rise in prices of cereals. It argues that the crisis is different from the ones in the 1960s and 1970s in that there is now likely to be a permanent upward shift in real prices. It is important that developing countries place renewed emphasis on selfsufficiency to ensure food security, since they are unlikely to be able to afford expensive food imports.
The inflation in food prices of the early 1970s that arose out of excess demand for cereals disappeared in later years not because of any significant supply augmentation, but because it was substituted by an income deflation on the working people, including the peasantry, over large tracts of the world. This income deflation, brought about by the imposition of neoliberal policies, compressed demand and kept food and other commodity prices in check. But over the longer term, income deflation has undermined the very viability of peasant agriculture, adversely affecting supply.
This paper attempts to analyse the current global crisis in the availability and prices of rice by drawing upon the long-term developments in the rice market. The instability and thinness in the world rice markets are shown to be mainly due to the predominantly precautionary export policies of major exporting countries, which in turn are a result of domestic food security considerations. Some possible policy options are also discussed.
Local market price of rice is almost half the global price of the staple and it will come down as international food market shows signs of cooling down, commerce adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman said on Thursday.
By Anil Pandey India is being blamed for current food shortage in south asia. How far this is true? A couple of weeks ago Ameri can President George Bush made similar statement blaming the prosperity of the rising Indian middle class for the current food crisis. This is far from truth as the consumption of food grains has been growing three times faster in the US as compared to India, according to Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO).
Allaying fears of a high foodgrain inflation due to global problems, Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen on Thursday said India is insulated against any such crisis, at least in the near future. "Foodgrain inflation in India is under control... In the last three years, our foodgrain production has increased by 30 million tonnes to 230 million tonnes. The wheat stock with the government is likely to go up by at least four million tonnes this year,' Mr Sen said here at a meeting on food inflation. He, however, said much needs to be done at the global level to increase grain output.
New Delhi June 25: The Indian government's view that biofuels are responsible for current food crisis, stands vindicated by one more international report. A briefing paper by Oxfam released on Wednesday has blamed biofuels for contributing to the present food crisis. In its report named "Another Inconvenient Truth: How Biofuel Policies are Deepening Poverty and accelerating Climate Change", Oxfam warned that biofuels are not a solution to either the climate change crisis or the oil crisis. The cost of using biofules to improve fuel security are prohibitively high, the report pointed out.
Gargi Parsai Buoyed by the production of 78 million tonnes of wheat this rabi and a procurement of 222 lakh tonnes for the Public Distribution System, the government may intervene in the market with open sale of wheat to contain prices. Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said here that the government had set aside about three million tonnes of wheat for the open market sale in those States where the wheat prices continue to remain high. The pricemade available thus, to augment supplies, would be fixed at lower than the market rate, the Minister said.
Compared with all other metropolitan cities in the country, Delhi is by far the cheapest to live in, claimed Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday. Reeling off a series of figures to buttress her claim, Ms. Dikshit said while the annual rate of inflation at the national level during 2007 was 6.5 per cent, it was just 4.9 per cent in Delhi. "The rate of inflation this past year was much lower in Delhi compared with other metropolitan cities. While Kolkata recorded 9.1 per cent inflation, Chennai and Mumbai recorded 5.1 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively,' she added.