El Niño and food price equation

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With the India Meteorological Department predicting a sub-normal monsoon in 2014 due to the emergence of El Niño (a weather phenomenon that affects rains), fears of a spike in food inflation have emerged.

Wholesale and retail food inflation have already crossed nine per cent. Wholesale food inflation increased in the years when El Niño pulled the monsoon below normal, except in 1993-94 and 1997-98. Overall foodgrain production might have weathered the impact of weak monsoon, due to irrigation. But production of fruit, vegetables and pulses suffered, leading to a rise in wholesale food inflation