Full Coverage: Agriculture

29.03.2008 Biofuels are increasingly coming under the scanner for the dangers that they pose for food supplies. No doubt that the biofuel sector has enormous potential to lower oil prices but there is also a need to set the priorities right in order to maintain a balance between food and energy securities.

28.03.2008 Despite being the locomotive of the global economy, the Asia-Pacific region still faces enormous challenges like food, energy and water security. UNESCAP’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008 reveals that by making agriculture both economically and socially viable, the region can achieve sustainable and inclusive growth.

28.03.2008 Revitalisation of agriculture is crucial to eradicate poverty, says UNESCAP’s Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2008 released globally on March 27. The survey highlights key challenges arising from economic hardships and social inequality in the Asia-Pacific region and calls for concerted policy actions.

25.03.2008 The government’s loan waivers for farmers are more of a populist stunt in the election year and less of seeking solutions to the current agrarian crisis, says journalist P.Sainath. The waivers fail to address moneylender debts and limit beneficiaries by a pre-determined two-hectare mark.

25.03.2008 This year’s bumper potato crop in Bangladesh may save millions of hungry people from starvation, who are reeling under the skyrocketing prices of food items. The government plans to distribute free potatoes and rice among the poor under its Vulnerable Group Feeding programme.

21.03.2008 Two villages in Maharashtra in western India tell of two different tales of survival. While one village is lush green with abundant water and yielding fields, the other in Vidarbha’s cotton belt has rising debts, shrinking incomes and desperate homes.

20.03.2008 It is unlikely that melting of heavy winter snow will cause any serious flooding in Afghanistan this year. The UN Assistance Mission is, however, concerned that farmers in the northern provinces of Faryab, Badakhshan and Balkh will probably face shortages of irrigation water, which will adversely affect the staple crop harvest.

18.03.2008

13.03.2008 SAARC countries have recently launched the South Asia Food Security Programme with an estimated cost of US$ 25 million. Together Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will strive to improve crop production and nutrition in the region by pooling together scientific and natural resources.

11.03.2008

07.03.2008 Indian IT company Infosys Technologies is improving the efficiency of the country's agro supply chain, by enabling farmers' access to technical data and images, region-specific weather updates and market information, such as daily sales volumes and average prices.

07.03.2008 A modernisation programme by the Ministry of Earth Sciences will warn farmers about weather changes well in advance. The agro meteorological service centres of Indian Meteorological Department will be responsible for translating weather forecasts into farm advisories.

05.03.2008 The newly-opened Global Seed Vault (GSV) at Svalbard in Norway is being criticised by Indian and other NGOs for excluding farmers from its institutional framework. Farmers being the first link in the food chain, should be involved in conserving genetic biodiversity, they argue.