The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
GM foods can save the day Soaring prices for staple foods are creating political tensions from North Africa to Southeast Asia, and the world is scrambling for solutions. Last week, wealthy countries pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in crops, seeds, vouchers and funds for "food security." That may help …
Macro economic imbalances are the talk of the day. The ongoing global food crisis, with agflation sweeping across the world, is attracting heated discussion everywhere. Food and fuel have never been intertwined so closely. Since commentators in the West have identified the supply gap on account of increasing demand in …
Bad weather is threatening a big shortfall in this year's US maize harvest, according to US officials, risking a further upward push to food and energy prices. Maize is the main feedstock for US ethanol. A further rapid rise in its price is likely to add to growing concern on …
Close on the heels of President George W Bush's remarks linking Indians' food habits to rising global prices of commodities, the United States has now partly attributed the surge in oil futures to the increased demand in India and China. "There are a lot of different ways that we can …
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), expressing its concern over the rising food prices, has called for an immediate global response to tackle the crisis. "We need to build a global platform for dialogue and action to manage the crisis,' said CII director general, Chandrajit Banerjee in a statement. He …
"It is the best of times; it is the worst of times.' Thus might one summarise the predicament of international private petroleum Companies. There is hardly a drawing room conversation at which I am present where the comment is not made, "So you're raking it in', or the question asked …
The image of biofuels is rapidly tarnishing. Already under fire for displacing food production and tropical forests, they are now charged with marginalising poor rural women. In a report published on 21 April, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization concludes that women subsistence farmers will be evicted to make way …
Power generation as well as the production of fuels for transportation requires water, and the supply of high-quality freshwater is energy intensive. A growing population and climate change will increase the pressure on both resources.
The production of clean energy for transportation makes demands on resources that are already scarce. Biofuels can contribute to a solution, but only to a limited extent. (Editorial)
biofuels have often been billed as the silver bullets of climate change. In recent times, however, their benefits have come under scrutiny. One analysis suggests that clearing forests and savannah to grow biofuels releases vast amount of carbon into the atmosphere, far more than the carbon spared from the atmosphere …
While customers at restaurants in New York City will soon be able to count the calories of their meals in an attempt to curb the obesity epidemic, people in New Delhi are currently counting their grains of rice. From Bolivia to Yemen, people around the world are taking to the …
Once, plant breeders dreamed of plumper tomatoes, heartier soybeans and juicier corn kernels. These days, visions of squat poplars and earless corn stalks are dancing in their heads. They are hoping these new fangled crops will make cost-effective biofuels.
Soaring food prices are a "massacre' of the world's poor and are creating a global nutritional crisis, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday, calling it a sign that capitalism is in decline. His comments came only hours after the United Nations' World Food Program called more expensive food a …
"Banning exports and going after traders is not going to prevent shooting up of prices. This is based on a false assumption. And planting Jatropha instead of soyabean will only end up tripling of food prices,' Vandana Shiva, eminent environmentalist said. Substituting food crops with alternatives such as jatropha will …
Developed nations should stop paying agricultural subsidies to encourage biofuel production because the payments are making staple foods more expensive, the Asian Development Bank said Monday. Biofuels should also be re-examined by governments around the world as it is increasingly unclear how environmentally friendly they are, said ADB managing director …
Bio-fuels hold potential as an energy alternative Bio-fuels have recently been attracting the global spotlight for their potential as an energy alternative. Though increasing environmental concerns have led to a simultaneous cost-benefit analysis, the scales are still tilting in favour of bio-fuels. Goldman Sachs, who predicted a shift in the …
Try India's Ayurveda medicinal system that could act as a panacea for Brazil's health woes. This was the advice from 73-year-old President Pratibha Patil to her Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 10 years her junior, during their one-toone meeting here. Ms Patil, who wrapped up her three-day state …
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has blown the election war bugle on the issue of rising prices with Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani saying that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government should control the prices or quit. Mr. Advani was addressing the BJP parliamentary party meeting where rising prices …
Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing Published: April 15, 2008 Food Prices Rise But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving …
