Recent spikes in staple food prices resulting from the invasion of Ukraine have once again highlighted the difficulty faced by low-income countries that rely on imports for a substantial portion of their
The agricultural loan waiver valued at Rs.60,000 crore announced in Budget 2008-09 has dominated discussions on the Budget.
The West Assam Milk Producers' Cooperative Union Ltd (WAMUL) has increased the prices of its milk products by Rs 1.
Against the background of a glut in sugarcane production, the State Government has decided to continue with last year's decision to provide transport subsidy to sugar factories to provide relief to
Climate change is likely to create new food insecurities by further pushing up the already rising prices and bringing down the world agriculture GDP by 16 per cent by 2020, the International Food Poli
The provisional Wholesale Price Index numbers for the week ending February 23 exceeded 5%, confirming what millions of households across India already knew
The 2008 Union budget must be remembered. Not because it heralds the news of an early election. But because it comes at a time when the world is battling four different but linked developments.
CONCERNED over rising food prices, the government on Wednesday said that agricultural trade barriers within the country were making commodities costlier in some states. "Why should food prices be different across states in a national economy...that is because there are barriers to agricultural trade,' finance minister's adviser Shubhashis Gangopadhyay said at a post-Budget meeting at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India here on Wednesday. The ability to control price inflation at the point where it is occurring is a big problem because commodities don't move in some areas, he said. He said expenditure-driven growth is going to give rise to more inflation. Food prices were high in the states wherever the disbursement of funds from various government programmes such as NREG was more, he noted. Last year, agricultural labour wage rate went higher than the food price inflation, he added. Mr Gangopadhyay said wherever necessary, the government would intervene to check the rising trend. Earlier during the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the government was committed to maintaining "reasonable' price stability at 4-5%, but it will not be at the cost of farmers. HIGH PRICE CONCERNS The ability to control price inflation at the point where it is occurring is a big problem because commodities don't move in some areas Food prices were high in the states wherever the disbursement of funds from various government programmes such as NREG
Rice prices have surged to a 20-year high in the latest sign of global food inflation, creating policy headaches in Asia, where more than 2.5 billion people depend on cheap and abundant supplies of the grain. Thai rice prices, a global benchmark, surged last week above the level of $500 a tonne for the first time since at least 1989, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, prompting importing countries to seek assurances on supplies. Robert Zeigler, director at the International Rice Research Institute in Manila, said policymakers should be concerned. "If history is any indicator, we should be worried because rice shortages have in the past led to civil unrest,' he said. US rice in Chicago, the benchmark for the world's fourth-largest exporter of the grain, jumped on Monday to a record $18.10 per hundredweight ($400 per tonne)
The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries
Citing reports of higher wheat output this year, Food Corporation of India (FCI) today said it expected to lift at least 13.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2008-09, up by 2.3 million tonnes over the current fiscal. "This year (2008-09), the wheat procurement from across the country by FCI is expected to be between 13.5 and 15 million tonnes of wheat which is quite high as compared to procurement done in earlier years,' FCI Chairman and Managing Director Alok Sinha told reporters here today. He said, "The major factors behind the increase in procurement will be higher MSP, good crop in Punjab, Haryana, Northern Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh, and low interest of private buyers in buying the crop.' FCI procured 9.2 million tonnes of wheat in 2006-07, followed by 11.2 million tonnes lifted in 2007-08. With the procurement of 13.5 million tonnes of the crop, the wheat stock of the country would reach 18.8 million tonnes. "From April 1 this year, we will have a stock of 5.3 million tonnes of wheat and if we add the figure of expected lifting then it will reach 188 lakh tons,' Sinha said. From Punjab and Haryana alone, FCI expects to lift 8.5 million tonnes and 40 million tonnes of wheat respectively, he informed. The agency predicts that the private buyers would not be aggressive this year for wheat buying due to stabilised domestic wheat prices. Elaborating on the low interest of private traders in wheat buying this year, Sinha said, "The wholesale prices of wheat in domestic market remained lower in 2007-08 than the prices in 2006-07, although the global prices remained high.' Moreover, the domestic wheat prices are stabilised at the moment. Therefore, in view of such a situation, private buyers will not as much as aggressive they were in 2006-07, he added. He said that the private buyers procured 3 million tonnes of wheat last year from the country and they did not make expected gains from this buying. As far as rice procurement is concerned, Sinha said FCI would buy 27 million tonnes of rice by September 30 this year as against rice procurement of 25 million tonnes last year.
