Rise in Argentina’s Maize Exports to Ease Pressure in International Food Markets – UN

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLYND4hRkKxolvsB99V83iIdHiqcx8NzXqqjroHeyhI1cxg9AXOuNhW6MTfWBiVSVbKAMYGfGy4VSQjqDjd_yoW6YSlSJIL7iAyfrzpzSfCvr2wsUo_SIgXQD1vG0I6VsOUn0rurFWwz8/s1600/09-14-2012yauhar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLYND4hRkKxolvsB99V83iIdHiqcx8NzXqqjroHeyhI1cxg9AXOuNhW6MTfWBiVSVbKAMYGfGy4VSQjqDjd_yoW6YSlSJIL7iAyfrzpzSfCvr2wsUo_SIgXQD1vG0I6VsOUn0rurFWwz8/s320/09-14-2012yauhar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva (left) with <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">Norberto Yauhar, Minister of Agriculture, Argentina.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-language: HI; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photo: FAO/Alessia Pierdomenico</span></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">UN News – Argentina’s announcement that it would export an additional 2.75 million tonnes of maize this year will help ease tight international markets, the United Nations food agency said today, adding that while this is a welcome measure, countries must remain vigilante to avoid a global food crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the announcement was made by Argentina’s Minister of Agriculture, Norberto Yauhar, who had just met with FAO’s Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, at the UN agency’s headquarters in Rome, Italy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“This goes to show that there is no threat of a global food crisis at present, although we must continue to be vigilant and monitor the situation closely,” Mr. Graziano da Silva said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Argentina is the world’s second biggest exporter of maize, and was responsible roughly for 15 per cent of the world’s maize exports in the last three years. The increase will bring the amount of maize from the 2011-2012 harvest to a total of 16.45 million tonnes, FAO stated in a news release.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This summer’s drought in the United States – the worst in over 50 years – fuelled fears of a food crisis when the FAO Food Price Index, which measures the prices of 55 food commodities, including meat, dairy, sugar, and cereals, surged by six per cent in July. However, food prices have remained steady in the past month.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">During their meeting, Mr. Yauhar and Mr. Graziano da Silva noted that the world is now better placed to cope with higher food prices than during the crisis of 2007-2008, partly because of mechanisms likes the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), which contributes to increasing market transparency and reducing price volatility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mechanisms like AMIS, which was established in 2011 by the Group of 20 (G20) leading economies, make it possible for countries to coordinate action and respond faster to volatile food price situations, Mr. Graziano da Silva said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The two men noted that there was better coordination within the UN system to address food security issues and stressed that it was important for countries to work together through international mechanisms rather than taking unilateral action, according to FAO. They also underlined that financial markets and trade should be regulated to avoid speculation on prices, which contribute to their volatility.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Mr. Graziano da Silva also emphasized the need for the international donor community to increase its immediate and long-term support to poor countries, which are significantly affected by changes in the prices of the food basket.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) – which provides food relief in humanitarian emergencies such as war and natural disasters – every 10 per cent increase in the price of its food basket means finding an additional $200 million a year to buy the same amount of food.<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Rise in Argentina’s Maize Exports to Ease Pressure in International Food Markets – UN

FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva (left) with Norberto Yauhar, Minister of Agriculture, Argentina.   Photo: FAO/Alessia Pierdome...

Read more »

Obama Announces Food Initiative for Africa

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <h1 style="background: white; line-height: 25.5pt; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By Kent Klein <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan aimed at lifting 50 million Africans out of poverty in the next 10 years. Private companies from around the world have pledged more than $3 billion toward the effort.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With the leaders of several African countries watching, the president said Friday that governments, private industries and organizations will work together to improve Africa's food security.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">​​</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Today, I can announce a new global effort we are calling a 'New Alliance' for food security and nutrition. And, to get the job done, we are bringing together all the key players around a shared commitment," said Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At a food security forum in Washington, the president said ending hunger by making African farms more productive is a moral imperative.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Because of smart investments in nutrition and agriculture and safety nets, millions of people in Kenya and Ethiopia did not need emergency aid in the recent drought. But when tens of thousands of children die from the agony of starvation, as in Somalia, that sends us a message that we have still got a lot of work to do. It is unacceptable. It is an outrage. It is an affront to who we are," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The president spoke as he prepared to host the annual economic summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations at the Camp David presidential retreat outside Washington.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To emphasize the importance of food security, Obama invited the leaders of four African nations to attend the G8 summit and discuss the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The president of Ghana, John Mills, said making food more plentiful would make societies more secure.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When you talk about food security, nutritional security, you are at the same time talking about health security, economic stability, political stability. And without these elements you will struggle with democracy," said Mills.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although some of the G8 countries are dealing with economic austerity, Obama said the "New Alliance" initiative would help ease the burden on some governments.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"That is what I mean by a new approach that challenges more nations, more organizations, more companies, more NGO’s [non-governmental organizations], challenges individuals - some of the young people who are here - to step up and play a role, because government cannot and should not do this alone. This has to be 'all hands on deck,'" said Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Obama said private contributions cannot take the place of a government commitment. He said the United States will continue to make what he called "historic investments" in development.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said government contributions are absolutely necessary for African development.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"The role of the private sector can only be to supplement the small-scale farmers. There is the issue of rural roads, water supply systems, irrigation infrastructure - all of these require public investment," said Zenawi.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: kashida; text-kashida: 0%;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The new food initiative is intended to build on a 2009 food security effort that brought $22 billion in pledges.---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Obama Announces Food Initiative for Africa

  By Kent Klein WHITE HOUSE - U.S. President Barack Obama has announced a plan aimed at lifting 50 million Africans out of poverty in the ...

Read more »

India's Foodgrain Output for 2011-12 Upped to a Record 252.56 Mn Tonnes

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12pt;">  </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- India's foodgrains production estimate has been revised upwards by over two million tonnes to an all-time high of 252.56 million tonnes in the 2011-12 crop year helped by bumper outputs in wheat and rice, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In February, foodgrains production had been pegged at 250.42 million tones for the 2011-12 crop year (July-June). </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">The country produced 244.78 million tonnes of foodgrains during 2010-11. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">According to the third advance estimates for 2011-12, released on Monday by India's Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, rice production has been revised to a record 103.41 million tonnes from 102.75 million tonnes in the previous estimate. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">Wheat output, too, has now been estimated at 90.23 million tonnes, from 88.31 million tonnes in the second advance estimates. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">However, the production figures of coarse cereals and pulses have been revised downwards to 41.91 million tonnes and 17.02 million tonnes, respectively, compared to 42.08 million tonnes and 17.28 million tonnes in the earlier estimates. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">"I am extremely happy to see this figure. I would like to congratulate the farming community. Overall stock position is good. The problem will be storage. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">I hope the concerned department will take appropriate steps," Pawar told reporters after inaugurating the National Crop Forecast Centre here. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><br /> </span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="p0" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';">In the 2010-11 crop year, rice production was 95.98 million tonnes, wheat 86.87 million tonnes, coarse cereals 43.68 million tonnes and pulses 18.24 million tonnes. -- NNN-BERNAMA </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 12.0000pt; mso-spacerun: 'yes';"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India's Foodgrain Output for 2011-12 Upped to a Record 252.56 Mn Tonnes

   NEW DELHI, India (NNN-Bernama) -- India's foodgrains production estimate has been revised upwards by over two million tonnes to an a...

Read more »

India: Food Inflation Turns Negative; RBI May Cut Interest Rates

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div style="border-bottom: double windowtext 2.25pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Food inflation turned negative in late December for the first time in many years as prices of vegetables like onion and potato declined, a development that may prompt the Reserve Bank of India to go for rate cuts at its next monetary policy review later this month.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Food inflation, measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), plunged to (-) 3.36 per cent as on Dec 24. This is the first time in almost six years, for which data with base year 2004-05 is available, that food inflation has shown a decline on an annual basis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Encouraged by the development, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said, "There has been substantial improvement. Food inflation has turned negative for the first time in the recent memory."<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Food inflation stood at 0.42 per cent in the previous week. It was 21 per cent in the corresponding week of 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">According to official data released Thursday, onion became cheaper by 73.74 per cent year-on-year during the week, while potato prices were down by 34.01 per cent. Prices of wheat fell by 3.41 per cent. Overall, vegetables became 50.22 per cent cheaper during the week ended December 24.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The fall food price has been substantial since the first week of November, when food inflation stood at double-digit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">"The environment appears to be in favour of the Reserve Bank reversing its monetary policy stance," Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan said.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: double windowtext 2.25pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">RBI, which has raised interest rates 13 times since March, 2010 to contain inflation, has already paused rate hike in its December mid-quarter policy review. The central bank is scheduled to announce next policy review on Jan 24. -- NNN-PTI</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div></div> <br /> <br /> _________________________<br /> I added cool smileys to this message... if you don't see them go to: http://s.exps.me

India: Food Inflation Turns Negative; RBI May Cut Interest Rates

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI) -- Food inflation turned negative in late December for the first time in many years as prices of vegetables like oni...

Read more »

Food: WTO "Must Address" Food Security

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe74hd17DoyGL5gtRyE5uwjdJxH5pSi5KVr803Hxyj7t8Ui1KNiHdDrD0wjFedQffkSlU9r6BgUerBW_HhyG6WVVE8K7UfcZUUDwUGaJxpIonUfHg98M4fwaxTCLfFDUWgrsyOb3-SME/s1600/FOODWTO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe74hd17DoyGL5gtRyE5uwjdJxH5pSi5KVr803Hxyj7t8Ui1KNiHdDrD0wjFedQffkSlU9r6BgUerBW_HhyG6WVVE8K7UfcZUUDwUGaJxpIonUfHg98M4fwaxTCLfFDUWgrsyOb3-SME/s400/FOODWTO.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Photo: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">Small farmers in developing countries cannot compete<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 8pt;">with subsidised big farmers in developed countries<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><st1:city w:st="on">JOHANNESBURG</st1:city> (IRIN) - An exchange between two leading world officials on how trade affects food insecurity in countries has helped focus attention on the stalled <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Doha</st1:city></st1:place> trade talks.</span></div><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Olivier de Schutter, UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, says: “Food security is the elephant in the room, which WTO [the World Trade Organization] must address”, pointing out that food import bills had soared by a third for poor countries this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Schutter said developing countries should limit their reliance on international trade to ensure they had enough food and be able to put in place measures to beef up their own production and insulate themselves from global price shocks. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, on the other hand, believes food security is central to the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), the world's first treaty aimed at improving market access and reducing trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture and the Doha Round. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Measures such as temporary import restrictions, state purchases from small-scale farmers,</span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-image: initial; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; margin-top: -0.75pt; width: 200px;"><tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 9pt;">Some issues WTO needs to address in agriculture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="10" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="12" /><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; width: 100.0%;" width="100%"><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">Ceilings on subsidies</span></strong><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">: Current ceilings on how much the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the EU can spend on subsidies that distort trade are still rather high<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="10" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026" width="12" /><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; width: 100.0%;" width="100%"><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">Cotton subsidies</span></strong><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">: The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> has still not fully complied with a WTO ruling in 2009 to remove subsidies for its cotton producers.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> African farmers could have gained from a 3.5 percent average increase in world cotton prices, if the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> had cut subsidies.</span><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="10" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027" width="12" /><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> <td style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt; width: 100.0%;" width="100%"><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">Biofuel Subsidies</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;"> </span></b></span><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 7.5pt;">: Not covered yet. A new study found that US ethanol subsidies may have artificially inflated maize prices by as much as 17 percent in 2011.</span><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 7.5pt;">Source: ICTSD<o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">allowing state-held food reserves, safety net insurance schemes and targeted farm subsidies could help, said Schutter, but WTO rules left little space for developing countries to implement them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">He said WTO members should convene a panel of experts to analyse whether existing WTO rules, and those being negotiated under the Doha Round were compatible with national and international food policies; assess the impact of trade liberalization on world food prices; and initiate talks at the WTO to take into account the long-term impacts of the 2007 global food price crisis for the international trade regime. (More details in his briefing note, The World Trade Organization and the Post-Global Food Crisis Agenda: Putting Food Security First in the International Food System) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Lamy points out that most experts, including those in the UN, agree that international trade is part of the solution. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Allowing developing countries to implement trade restrictive measures could hurt them the most, as, he said, “About 60 percent of developing countries’ agriculture exports go to other developing countries.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Lamy agreed with Schutter on the need to ensure safety nets are in place to help the urban and rural poor, but he said the AoA provides developing countries with the room to implement policies in line with their national objectives through the use of certain subsidies. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Developing countries do not have to cut their subsidies or lower their tariffs as much as developed countries, and they are given extra time to complete their obligations under AoA. Poor countries don’t have to do this at all, he added. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">The Doha Round could help to give developing countries more space by making it easier to maintain food reserves for food security purposes for instance, said Lamy. (More details on Lamy’s response) <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><b>Other views </b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Almost all economists, and even those within the UN, agree that trade is part of the solution and insulating domestic economies with trade restrictions might work in the short-term for a particular country but can have far-reaching repercussions for others in the region. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Economist Dirk Willem te Velde at the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region>’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI) cited <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tanzania</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s export ban on maize in July as an example. “At that moment, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kenya</st1:place></st1:country-region> would have wanted more trade rather than less in order to become more food secure.” <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><b>The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Doha</st1:place></st1:city> Round </b><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">The Schutter-Lamy debate has reopened issues around the <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Doha</st1:place></st1:city> talks which have been going on, in stop-start mode, for the last 10 years.  <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">"Two schools of thought are emerging", said Jonathan Hepburn, the agriculture programme manager at the Geneva-based think-tank, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development: One says that “with Doha in limbo, high and volatile food prices, a changing climate, and growing world population, it made sense to begin discussing how trade relates to food security and other issues. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">"The other - of concluding <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Doha</st1:place></st1:city> first - is favoured by many developing countries who have invested scarce resources in maintaining missions and negotiators at the talks for 10 years." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">Economist Edward Clay of the ODI says: “Perhaps no one is actually able to admit that the Doha Development Round [DDR] is dead and so begin the discussion again with that openly conceded. That leads to the question what should be taken over from the DDR." <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">He digs deeper: "Trade and food security is in effect a WTO issue, and so there is great frustration within the UN that this enormously restricts the role of, for example, the Food and Agriculture Organization-based Committee on Food Security: the key issues are not just discussed but actually negotiated elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';">"Second, primarily allowing trade to address food security is somewhat in greater doubt in our current era of extreme food commodity market volatility."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></div>

Food: WTO "Must Address" Food Security

Photo: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Small farmers in developing countries cannot compete with subsidised big farmers in developed...

Read more »

Analysis: Six ways to take the bite out of Bangladesh food price hikes

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfBwNgqNlJrTzUIU2Ioad2FYqp_Jasc-0MZwcRNjnf8xs-wMPNn9lOkzlVJccH4FtUyL9EmmlLHz2VkQ-sDNetZdlevxFRSj5XT51Bdfw8UlyChupr23uu8mR5Rjj4hD2IRN9ZudVlpk/s1600/foodpricebanglades.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfBwNgqNlJrTzUIU2Ioad2FYqp_Jasc-0MZwcRNjnf8xs-wMPNn9lOkzlVJccH4FtUyL9EmmlLHz2VkQ-sDNetZdlevxFRSj5XT51Bdfw8UlyChupr23uu8mR5Rjj4hD2IRN9ZudVlpk/s1600/foodpricebanglades.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Photo: </span></i><i><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/"><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Mubashar Hasan/IRIN</span></a></span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Among the most vulnerable to <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">price shocks are the elderly, urban poor, women and children<o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">DHAKA (IRIN) -<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Food price increases<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">have typically been followed by declining energy, vitamin and mineral intake and worsening malnutrition among <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s poorest. As food prices continue to climb, IRIN asked experts how to break this pattern.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Over the past year the price of rice in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> has increased by close to 30 percent, flour by 50 percent, lentils by 15 percent and chicken by 37 percent, according to a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2011 study by Oxfam<span style="color: #333333;">.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> The poor are hit hardest during these price shocks as they spend more of their income on food, said Kenneth Brown, a professor of nutrition at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">California</st1:placename></st1:place> at Davis and adviser to NGO Helen Keller International (HKI).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> “The usual coping strategy is to purchase more of the lower cost staple food and less of the complementary sources of vitamins and minerals… It is the quality of the diet that suffers with increasing food prices,” said Brown.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> As a result, both chronic and acute malnutrition will worsen during rising food price increases, said Howarth Bouis, director of HarvestPlus, a food fortification project of the Washington DC-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> A 50 percent increase in food prices results in a decrease in energy intake of 5-15 percent and a drop in iron intake of 10-30 percent, based on a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">model Bouis and colleagues created<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #0a62a1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">using data on food prices and consumption from rural <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the mid-1990s.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In a 2010 nutrition survey released on 13 December (not yet online) by HKI, the Dhaka-based BRAC University, and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 45 percent of children under five were too short for their age group (stunted), a sign of vitamin and mineral deficiency.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Lack of micronutrients is a leading cause of preventable mental disability, according to health experts.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Six out of 10 households in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> - including some 10 million children - did not have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food in 2010, according to the food security and nutrition survey by HKI and its Bangladeshi partners.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> Surveying 23,000 households (including 26,000 children) researchers found the rate of acute malnutrition doubled to 16 percent from the beginning to the end of the dry season (January-August).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Humanitarian agencies view any percentage above 15 as a nutrition emergency.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> Below are six ways experts identified to help people in Bangladesh not simply survive - but also thrive - during food price increases.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> <strong>Household food production<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> “In rural areas, homestead gardening and small animal production can help to make people less vulnerable to price shock,” said Damien Joud of Action Against Hunger (ACF).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> HKI trains farmers, mostly female, on agricultural methods that help boost their yield and income while saving water and soil resources. It also provides improved seeds and animal breeds.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Household food production is part of the organization’s response to global food price volatility, as laid out in a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">position paper<span style="color: #333333;">updated in June 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> <strong>Safety net programmes<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><strong><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></strong><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Activities should safeguard and improve the food and nutrition security of the most vulnerable groups, said Michael Dunford, acting country director of the World Food Programme in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> “Empowering women and improving their access to income-earning opportunities is one of the most effective means of strengthening the resilience of households to shocks. Women are more likely to ensure that infants and young children receive the food they need.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><table align="right" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #eeeeee; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: rgb(187, 187, 187); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1pt; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; margin-left: 6pt; margin-right: 6pt; margin-top: -0.75pt; width: 220px;"><tbody> <tr> <td style="border-bottom: solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid #CCCCCC .75pt; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma;">Strategies elsewhere<o:p></o:p></span></b></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 6.0pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 6.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:9.75pt; height:9.75pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="13" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="13" /><!--[endif]--> <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94466"><b><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">SAHEL: Act now to avoid another crisis, say aid agencies</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 6.0pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 6.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="13" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1026" width="13" /><!--[endif]--> <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=81781"><b><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">GLOBAL: Avoiding another food price bubble</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 6.0pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 6.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1027" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="13" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027" width="13" /><!--[endif]--> <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=77646"><b><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">GLOBAL: "Let them eat subsidies?"</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 6.0pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 6.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1028" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="13" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1028" width="13" /><!--[endif]--> <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94326"><b><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">NUTRITION: A sweet potato a day...</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 6.0pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 6.0pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #006699; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1029" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style='width:9.75pt;height:9.75pt'> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif"/> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img align="absMiddle" border="0" height="13" src="file:///C:\Users\wisdom\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="_x0000_i1029" width="13" /><!--[endif]--> <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=94082"><b><span style="color: #0a62a1; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">WEST AFRICA: Building resilience in the Sahel</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="border: none; padding: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt;"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 8.25pt; mso-element-frame-vspace: 1.5pt; mso-element-left: right; mso-element-top: middle; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><br /> </div></td> </tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In September 2008, the government launched a 100-day employment generation programme to help poor families affected by high food prices; it has become the largest safety net programme in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> Now known as the Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest, it targets rural areas during two lean seasons when families are awaiting harvests: March-May (40 days) and October-December (40 days).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> There are more than 60 government-led safety net programmes nationwide, according to Akhter Ahmed, chief of party for IFPRI’s <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> office. “However, most of these programmes have limited coverage, are uncoordinated and are not adequately funded.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> <strong>Wage increases<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> “If wages of the poorest section of the population increase with the food price hikes, the negative impact of the price hikes can be mitigated,” said Ahmed.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> “The extent of such mitigation will depend on the time [it takes for the wages to increase] and the magnitude of the wage increase. It is encouraging that wages of the poor have been increasing in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> since the 2008 food price surge. The government should monitor changes in wages relative to food price changes,” he added.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">average monthly income<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #0a62a1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">rose from US$94 in 2005 to $150 in 2010. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /> <br /> <strong>School feeding<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> Ahmed emphasized school feeding programmes for their ability to “ensure nutrition and education at the same time” and called for a targeted expansion in places like urban slums.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> “To achieve maximum benefit for the cost, the programme should cover those areas where undernutrition is a serious problem, school enrolment and attendance rates are low and dropout rates are high… The programme should also cover secondary schools in target areas to improve education and nutrition of adolescent girls,” he added.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> As of December 2011, 2.7 million primary school students nationwide receive food at school, according to Bablu Kumar Saha, director of the government’s national school feeding programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> There are 16.5 million primary school-aged children in the country.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> <strong>Subsidized food<o:p></o:p></strong></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br /> <!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5EG8w8Duj6gtlDBZSmnPbRiblMLyb0k_xST6HAuDF136FtiOsQ6s81MYzs6PQHn8e1m_RmsjtpN9ymxCMhDZHZten95bckwIIWQPYaL86aeZMqw6pZ7z99PP2jf-YN-4x7NH33BX5FE/s1600/Open+market+sale+in+Dhaka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5EG8w8Duj6gtlDBZSmnPbRiblMLyb0k_xST6HAuDF136FtiOsQ6s81MYzs6PQHn8e1m_RmsjtpN9ymxCMhDZHZten95bckwIIWQPYaL86aeZMqw6pZ7z99PP2jf-YN-4x7NH33BX5FE/s1600/Open+market+sale+in+Dhaka.jpg" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Photo: <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Contributor/IRIN</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Open market sale in <st1:place w:st="on">Dhaka</st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></i></div></td></tr> </tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">An effective<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">public food distribution system<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #0a62a1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">can make people less vulnerable to price shocks, said Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, chairman of the local research group, Unnayan Onneshan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Leaving the market to set food prices has in some cases led to predatory price-fixing, while the government’s long-running open market sales - when it releases its stocks directly to poor populations to prevent any sharp increases in market prices - is limited in its reach and efficacy, said Titumir as well as authors of the 2010 nutrition survey.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> Other national subsidy programmes in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region> have included rations for vulnerable groups and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">food-for-work<span style="color: #333333;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /> <br /> <strong><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Crop breeding<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Bio-fortification<span style="color: #333333;">, or selectively breeding crops high in nutrients, can buttress against shocks by creating more mineral and vitamin dense food staples, said HarvestPlus’s Bouis.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br /> <br /> “The time is long overdue to bring agricultural interventions to bear to reduce micronutrient malnutrition,” he wrote in Food and Nutrition Bulletin.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">A recent study<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #0a62a1;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">of zinc-fortified rice in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:country-region></st1:place> (supported by HarvestPlus) concluded that while it has the potential to increase children’s intake of zinc, the zinc-fortified rice examined did not increase children’s levels of total absorbed zinc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /> <br /> HarvestPlus aims to release in 2013 top performing seeds of high-zinc rice currently under testing in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bangladesh</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

Analysis: Six ways to take the bite out of Bangladesh food price hikes

Photo: Mubashar Hasan/IRIN Among the most vulnerable to price shocks are the elderly, urban poor, women and children DHAKA (IRIN) -   ...

Read more »

India: Key Food Security Bill Introduced In Lok Sabha

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NEW DELHI</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"> (NNN-PTI): The landmark Food Security Bill, that gives legal right to cheaper food grains to 63.5% of the country's population, was introduced in the Lok Sabha here Thursday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Considered to be the world's largest experiment in providing food security to poor, the Bill was introduced by Food Minister K V Thomas amid thumping of desks by Congress members led by party chief Sonia Gandhi, who has been strongly pushing the ambitious social legislation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Implementation of the scheme is expected to cost Rs 3.5 lakh crore and subsidy bill is expected to be to the tune of Rs 95,000 crore. The National Food Security Bill, 2011, provides for coverage of 75% of the people in rural areas, including at least 46% under priority sections (which is same as below poverty line families in the existing public distribution system). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Up to 50% of people will be covered in the urban centres, with at least 28% under priority category. Under the significant legislation, people eligible under priority category would be entitled to 7 kg of food grains comprising rice, wheat and coarse grains per person per month.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rice will be provided at Rs 3, wheat at Rs 2 and coarse grains at Re 1 per kg. General category would get at least 3 kg of grains at a rate not exceeding 50% of the minimum support price. -NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

India: Key Food Security Bill Introduced In Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): The landmark Food Security Bill, that gives legal right to cheaper food grains to 63.5% of the country's populati...

Read more »

India: Food Subsidy of Rs. 45,125 Cr Released Till Dec 15: Govt.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">NEW DELHI</span></span></st1:city></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"> (NNN-PTI): Against the food subsidy budget of Rs 60,572 crore for the current fiscal, the government has already released Rs 45,125 crore towards it by December 15; the Rajya Sabha was informed Monday.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The food subsidy bill was Rs 62, 929, 56 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 58,242.45 crore in the previous fiscal, Food and Public Distribution Minister K V Thomas said in during the Question Hour.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The difference between economic cost of food grains and Central Issues Prices fixed for Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) is incurred by the central government as food subsidy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Food subsidy is released to Food Corporation of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> and state governments undertaking procurement of food grains under Decentralised Procurement Scheme.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">During the current fiscal, 488.74 lakh tonnes food grains have been allocated to the beneficiaries under the TPDS, the minister said. The Centre provides food grains at subsidised prices to the targeted population under TPDS and OWS.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The minister said Uttar Pradesh has given the highest quantity of subsidised food grains (71.13 lakh tonnes) followed by <st1:place w:st="on">Maharashtra</st1:place> (46.47 lakh tonnes).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Talking about leakages, the Minister said strengthening and streamlining of the system is being done on a continuous basis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">"The government also issues instructions from time to time to states/union territories to strengthen the functioning of TPDS by improving monitoring mechanism and vigilance, increase on a regular basis," he added --NNN-PTI<o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div>

India: Food Subsidy of Rs. 45,125 Cr Released Till Dec 15: Govt.

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): Against the food subsidy budget of Rs 60,572 crore for the current fiscal, the government has already released Rs 4...

Read more »

APEC Announces Partnership for Global Food Safety

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">By Mike O'Sullivan from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Honolulu</st1:city></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;"><span>  </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span>  </span><span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Asia Pacific leaders are meeting in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Honolulu</st1:city></st1:place> through Sunday for the annual summit of APEC, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.<span>  </span>On the sidelines, corporate chief executives have been meeting with officials of the 21 APEC economies.<span>  </span>One result of this year's summit is a public-private partnership to ensure the safety of global food supplies.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> government says nearly 50 million Americans are made ill by the food they eat each year, and thousands die from food-borne illnesses annually.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">American officials, corporate executives and World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati announced a partnership Saturday to help APEC members and others ensure the safety of their food.<span>  </span>Sri Mulyani says that problems in the food supply spread quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“A food safety crisis that originates in one region can so rapidly become a crisis in another region,” said Sri Mulyani.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> upgraded its food safety standards last January when President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act.<span>  </span>The new law focuses on prevention of food-borne illnesses, which Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, says is crucial.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Prevention is at the heart of food safety, preventing an incident before it occurs,” said Bailey.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The new fund aims at building oversight capacity, initially among members of the APEC trade group, which includes industrial countries such as the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>, emerging economies like <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region>, and developing nations, including <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rohit Khanna of Waters Corporation, a maker of scientific instruments and a partner in the fund, says the strategy involves educating food producers and processors, and scientific testing.<span>  </span>He says food suppliers who sell to industrial nations already test their food.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“That's critical,"said Khanna. "They have to make sure that before they export it, it's tested and it's going to meet our standards.<span>  </span>But what's happening is, as these countries, as the poor population is now moving into a middle class arena, they're starting to expect the same type of quality of food locally that we would expect coming into the United States, for example.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An American official, speaking at the launch of the Global Food Safety Partnership, said as much as 20 percent of the food Americans eat is imported, including 80 percent of their seafood, most of which comes from Asia.<span>  </span>He says a strategy for food safety must be global. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Pamela Bailey says the new fund is a step in that direction.<span>  </span>It is being launched with a modest one million dollars.<span>  </span>Half of the sum is to be provided by Mars Incorporated, a global company known for its candy, and one quarter of the amount will come from the U.S. Agency for International Development.<span>  </span>The World Bank will manage the fund.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Grocery Manufacturers Association is providing its expertise, and the association's Pamela Bailey says the global food safety effort is just getting started.<span>   </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“What's most important is the partnership - industry, [the] government of the U.S., I know we'll be joined by other governments, the World Bank, and it's the world's first global fund for food safety,” said Bailey.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An American aid official says the fund is part of a larger effort to reduce hunger and malnutrition around the world. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

APEC Announces Partnership for Global Food Safety

By Mike O'Sullivan from Honolulu       Asia Pacific leaders are meeting in Honolulu through Sunday for the annual summit of APEC, the ...

Read more »

India: Food Inflation Can Be Tamed Via Innovative Biz Models: KPMG

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">NEW DELHI</st1:place></st1:city> (NNN-PTI): Food inflation, which remains remarkably high at over 12 per cent, could be tamed through innovative agriculture business models, a KPMG report said.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">The report -- Taming Food Inflation Through Innovative Agri-business Models -- highlighted that reduction in farm investment, lack of infrastructure, lower productivity, sub-optimal technology usage and failed policy focus are some of the key factors contributing to food inflation. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">"Despite a good monsoon and increased production in FY 2010-11, food inflation in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region> remains remarkably high. Inflation in food products has been either a direct or an indirect consequence of various factors on both the demand and supply side," the report noted. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">However, a few companies have converted the supply-demand challenges impacting food prices into an opportunity through the innovation path, it said, adding that their business models have helped address bottlenecks to some extent. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">"It may be useful to apply learnings from such case studies to the broader market context leading to an effective and efficient food value chain," said the report, which was released at the ninth Knowledge Millennium Summit here today. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Citing some of the innovative business-models, the report said that in the absence of growth in public investment in agriculture and allied sectors, Coimbatore-based Suguna Poultry Farms solved the problem of funding in poultry sector by introducing 15,000 rural entrepreneurs across 10 states. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Whereas Bangalore-based Snowman Frozen Foods Limited, a pioneer in storage and transportation of perishables in the country, is addressing growing complexity in the cold storage management through technology interventions, it said. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">"The consistent deficiency in investments has led to infrastructure bottlenecks and inefficiencies across the food value chain. The lack of processing, absence of storage facilities lead to wastage of approximately 35 of fruits and vegetables," the report observed.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">To address the low productivity of land resources, as many as "19 Indian agricultural companies have gone international in their search for land to create ultra-large scale farms", the report said. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Whereas Jalgaon-based Jain Irrigation is promoting an affordable small scale irrigation system with high efficiency of water usage to address the issue of scarcity of water and irrigation facilities in the country, it said. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Gujarat-based N-Mart is attempting to solve the fragmented supply chain leading to price build up through network based sales, the report added. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Agri-business is a USD 450 billion opportunity in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the report said, adding that a developed sector can be a strong link between the farm sector and consumers. -NNN-PTI</div></div>

India: Food Inflation Can Be Tamed Via Innovative Biz Models: KPMG

NEW DELHI (NNN-PTI): Food inflation, which remains remarkably high at over 12 per cent, could be tamed through innovative agriculture busi...

Read more »

UN Launches 2011 World Food Day

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS';"><br /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; font-size: 8.0pt;">By Sabina Castelfranco from <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The U.N. World Food Program says there are growing concerns over food insecurity in the developing world. Some of those concerns are discussed in a report released to coincide with the commemoration Sunday of World Food Day.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The theme for World Food Day 2011 is “Food Prices - From Crisis to Stability.”<span>  </span>A ceremony to mark World Food Day will be held Monday at the headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Rising food prices, weather emergencies and political instability are deepening the struggle of families trying to provide for their households in many developing nations. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">This year’s “State of <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Food Insecurity</st1:place></st1:state> in the World” report, published last week, focuses on the impact of food-cost volatility, confirming that high, unpredictable prices are likely to continue.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The report highlighted how poor consumers, small farmers and countries dependent on imports, especially in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, have been deeply affected by the food and economic crises.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Gregory Barrow is with the World Food Program in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city>. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">“If you look at the places where World Food Program works particularly in developing countries, you see populations of people who might be spending 60, 70, 80 percent of their salaries on purchasing food for their families”. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Barrow added that if prices become volatile and generally start rising, even by a small amount, it means that many of these people are going to struggle to put nutritious food on their tables.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The report also showed that even short-term fluctuations in prices can have a long-term effect on development, and that cutting back on nutritious food in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life can affect mental and physical development and ultimately, future earning capacity. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The United Nations has programs in place aimed at reducing the number of hungry people by one-half by 2015. But most observers agree this target is unlikely to be reached. --- VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

UN Launches 2011 World Food Day

By Sabina Castelfranco from Rome The U.N. World Food Program says there are growing concerns over food insecurity in the developing world...

Read more »