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 …
As wheat prices soar across Central Asia, officials in Kazakhstan, the region's key grain supplier, have resorted to controlling exports to stem rising domestic costs. Experts fear the move will complicate matters for its neighbouring nations, pushing wheat prices further up (see
Second deluge: Less than a month after monsoon rains battered the country, a second wave of flooding that began on September 10, is further affecting parts of Bangladesh. According to government officials, the overall death toll from flooding since July had risen to 840, forcing over half a million from …
"Why shouldn't salt-making be classed as agriculture?' asks R Potharaju. "Both require land, water and sunshine, and are subject to vagaries of nature,' he reasons. Potharaju is convenor of the Prakasam District Salt Farmers Forum. The forum believes that an official categorisation as agriculture would take care of the many …
Zea mays has become the very emblem of plenty, with rich golden cobs of corn (maize) overspilling from some of the most effectively farmed arable lands on the planet. Jatropha curcas, on the other hand, is an unprepossessing and indeed toxic plant, better suited to scrubland and hedges. Yet in …
The international charity group Care has turned down a donation of us $46 million a year worth of grain from the us government saying the country's food aid system does "more harm than good'. The us is the only country to practice
the ban on futures trading in essential commodities is likely to be lifted. The expert committee under Abhijit Sen backs the idea. The committee was set up in March 2007 to assess the impact of futures trading
The milk producers agitation in Maharashtra remains unresolved. The state-wide milk bandh in the last week of June, demanding a price hike for buffalo milk, has brought to the fore a politically vexed milk cooperative system and an apathetic administration. Apart from western Maharashtra's Kolhapur and Sangli districts -- stronghold …
The government is being severely criticised for the wheat it is now planning to import. Rightly so. India's season for wheat ended a few months ago. When the crop was being harvested the government dithered on the price it would pay farmers; it floated tenders for import of wheat; it …
At least three major cities saw protests in May against Reliance, India's largest corporation, entering the business of retailing fresh vegetables and fruits through its brand Reliance Fresh. In Ranchi and Indore, the protests had political backing and turned violent. The protestors, mostly street vendors, fear the company's low prices …
the unrest over Reliance's plans to enter the retail fresh vegetable and fruit market is only to be expected. It is just about possible that its entry into this sector will not completely drive out small vendors who are at present the backbone of the trade, but the fears that …
parshit Kurmi, a daily-wage labourer in Delhi since 1991, was puzzled when he was told that the government's latest estimate had found poverty levels were coming down. For the past 16 years, Kurmi's life has been uncertain as he struggles to survive. "In Delhi, I earn more, but am poorer …
Titas gas leak Bangladesh Gas Field Company Ltd has initiated operations to stop uncontrolled gas leaks from the country's biggest gas field Titas in Brahmanbaria district. Though the gas started leaking around four years ago, it has been aggravated by rains in 2006. According to local media reports, the gas …
The food processing industry is growing faster than it and pharmaceuticals.One of the implications of this growth is that industry is buying raw materials on a large scale affecting both supply of food, which is contracting, and prices, which are rising. Both these developments affect the poor the most, especially …
Data compiled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) show that in 2004, though production of most cereals decreased as compared to 1990, exports increased. Similarly, the production of pulses and groundnut decreased but exports increased. In both cases, domestic consumption too decreased. In the case of wheat, however, all …
It can be said that Union budget, 2007, is high on symbolism and intent. Most people in and close to power acknowledge that something is spoiling booming India's party: price rise, agricultural decay, poverty, mainly. This budget, says finance minister P Chidambaram, is the government's way to fix these problems …
The rising gap between demand and production of edible oils has led to a fast rise in imports of vegetable oils since the eighties. About one half of current consumption of edible oils in recent years (1998-2002) is being met through imports. The policy of self-sufficiency in edible oils resulted …
India has toppled the us to become the second largest producer of cotton, after China, states the cotton fiscal of 2006-2007. Statistics also show that by October-end, the annual cotton farmers' suicide-mark has crossed 1,000. But the why behind suicides
food and environmental safety in the country has been stoked with the centre's decision to ease the quarantine norms for 5.5 million tonnes of imported wheat. The first tender for this was released on February 20 this year; the latest on September 5. Three union ministries have bent rules to …
