Page 3 - Food Security

Concerns over food security grow as Russia warns to pull out of grain deal

Concerns are growing that Russia will not extend a United Nations-brokered deal that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to parts of the world struggling with hunger, with ships no longer heading to the war-torn country's Black Sea ports and food exports dwindling. Turkey and the UN negotiated the breakthrough accord last summer to ease a global food crisis, along with a separate agreement with Russia to facilitate shipments of its food and fertiliser. Moscow insists it's still facing hurdles, though data shows it has been exporting record amounts of wheat. Russian officials repeatedly say there are no grounds for extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is up for its fourth renewal Monday. It's something they have threatened before then have twice gone on to extend the deal for two months instead of the four months outlined in the agreement. The UN and others are striving to keep the fragile deal intact, with Ukraine and Russia both major suppliers of wheat, barley, vegetable

State Food Ministers to discuss kharif procurement, food security on Jul 5

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal will chair the conference

District-level committees in Rajasthan to distribute free food packets

The Rajasthan government has decided to procure food items and distribute them to beneficiaries under the Annapurna scheme through district-level committees headed by district collectors, an official source said on Monday. Earlier, the cooperative department was given this task. However, the state government has now decided to do this through district-level committees. The Chief Minister Free Annapurna Food Packet Scheme was announced by Ashok Gehlot during the presentation of the state's budget for 2023-24 in February to provide relief to the masses from rising prices. "The district-level committee will procure items and will distribute the food kits," an official source told PTI. Under the scheme, which will be introduced soon, free food packets will be provided to families covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). The food packets will be prepared and made available to Fair Price Shops (FPS) for distribution to beneficiaries. They will receive packets containing free

Expenditure on social sector: Turning social safety nets into trampolines

A look back at welfare spending is the first step to understanding Covid impact absorption and darning holes, if any, in the welfare fabric

PM Modi calls for deliberations on food security at G20 agri conference

Stating that the agriculture sector is facing several challenges globally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the G20 Agriculture Ministers Meeting to deliberate on how to undertake collective action for achieving global food security. In a video message to the three-day meeting underway in Hyderabad, Modi said climate change is causing extreme weather events more and more frequently, and these challenges are felt most by the global South. "Globally, agriculture provides livelihood for over 2.5 billion people. In the global South, agriculture accounts for almost 30 per cent of the GDP and over 60 per cent of jobs and today this sector faces several challenges. The supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic has been worsened by the impact of geopolitical tensions," the Prime Minister said. "Climate change is causing extreme weather events, more and more frequently. These challenges are felt most by the global South," Modi added. He said India's policy is the fusion of

85% of target population got free ration in June, says Delhi minister

Eighty-five per cent of the target population was given free ration in June under the National Food Security Act, the Delhi government said on Wednesday. Chairing a meeting with the Commissioner (food and supplies), Delhi Minister of Food and Civil Supplies Imran Hussain said the department needs to put more effort to provide free rations regularly to the eligible population in a transparent manner. "Our government is committed to resolving public grievances related to the public distribution system in a timely and expeditious manner. I assure you no one will be deprived of free ration in Delhi," Hussain said. The meeting was convened to review the distribution of free ration under the NFSA and to assess the setting up of vigilance committees at the Fair Price Shops throughout the capital.

J&K secures top rank in Food Safety Index for third consecutive year

In a significant achievement, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has maintained its first rank under the union territory (UT) category in Food Safety Index 2022-23.

Assam cabinet decides to expand food security net, changes income criteria

The Assam cabinet on Wednesday expanded the food security net by changing the income criteria so that families who earn up to Rs four lakh per annum can benefit from the scheme which gives subsidised food rations. This will add 40 lakh new beneficiaries this year. The cabinet, in a meeting presided by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, decided to amend the Assam Food Security Rules, 2022 to change the maximum income criteria from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum,Tourism minister Jayanta Malla Barua said at a media briefing. "This will enable more deserving families to apply for new ration cards which will be formally distributed in one day," he said. The Council of ministers also decided to set up an Adivasi Welfare and Development Council in accordance with the Adivasi accord signed on September 15, 2022, Barua said. The Council will address political, economic and educational aspirations, protect, preserve and promote social, cultural, linguistic and ethnic identities and en

Yemen's food insecurity remains serious threat, warns UN official

Despite the efforts of the UN and its partners, the problem of food insecurity in Yemen remains a severe threat, warned an official of the world body

'WTO not listening to developing nations', says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Sitharaman stressed that there was also a need to involve the private sector to step up investment and innovation

As war jams food supply, hunger now grips quarter of a billion globally

Some 258 million people across 58 countries or territories suffered food insecurity acute enough to threaten their lives or livelihoods in 2022

India stands firm at WTO: Our food subsidies ensure global food security

Under the trade norms, a WTO member's food subsidy bill should not breach the limit of 10 per cent of the value of production

World food prices fall for 12th month running in Mar following Ukraine war

Vegetable oils fell 3.0%, some 47.7% down on the level the index hit in March 2022, while the dairy index was down 0.8%

Fortified rice available via PDS, to cover whole India by Mar 24: Food Secy

Fortified rice is being distributed via public distribution system (PDS) in 269 districts so far and will cover the rest of the districts well before the deadline of March 2024, Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address in 2021 said the government aims to distribute fortified rice via the government schemes by 2024. Thereafter, a scheme for the distribution of fortified rice, containing prescribed micronutrients (Iron, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12) was launched on October 2021 in a phased manner in order to address the problem of anaemia in children and women. Addressing a press conference, Chopra said fortified rice distribution in the last two phases has been implemented successfully. "This is a unique and very successful initiative of the central government which has given extremely good results in the past two years. We are extremely enthused by the response we got from the public," he said. There was a certa

Food supply risks rise worldwide as important traders leave Russia

The exit of Cargill Inc. and Viterra means Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter, will have more control over its food shipments and reap more of the revenues

BIMSTEC meet on climate change, food security underway in Kolkata

The BIMSTEC ministerial conference, which will deal with issues such as climate change and food security, is underway in Kolkata on Saturday. Experts from various fields will discuss the issues concerning the seven members of the 'Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation' (BIMSTEC). The two-day event will be attended, among others, by West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose and Minister of State for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. "This conference has been designed to address all persisting issues and challenges in BIMSTEC with a country-wise representation and perspective, Arindam Mukherjee, the director of the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, one of the organisers of the event, has said. The seven members of the BIMSTEC are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

To ensure food security, Sri Lanka imports 2 million eggs from India

Sri Lanka has imported two million eggs from India to ensure food security in the crisis-hit island nation, Trade Minister Nalin Fernando said on Thursday. Fernando told Parliament that the shipment imported by the State Trading General Corporation had arrived and the stocks would be released in the market within three days. The decision to import eggs was based on a decision by a cabinet committee to ensure food security, Fernando said. In January when the market shortages were noticed, the Animal Production and Health Department declined to approve the import of eggs from India or Pakistan as both countries reported bird-flu outbreaks in the past six months. Director General of the Health Department Himali Kotelawala had said that the country of origin of eggs must be free of bird flu for at least six months. India had recently experienced severe outbreaks of bird flu, so importing eggs from India is contrary to the Animal Health Disease Act in Sri Lanka. The Import and Export .

Millets can help tackle challenges of food security, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said millets can help tackle challenges of food security as well as food habits and asked farm scientists to work towards increasing the share of nutri-cereals in the national food basket. Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Global Millets (Shri Anna) Conference', he said it is a matter of great honour for the country that after India's proposal and efforts, the United Nations declared 2023 as 'International Year of Millets'. Modi said India is continuously working to promote millets or Shri Anna as a global movement. Stressing that millets can be grown easily in adverse climatic conditions and without chemicals and fertilizers, the prime minister said India's millets mission will benefit 2.5 crore small and marginal farmers in the country. "Today millets constitute only 5-6 per cent in the national food basket. I urge India's scientists and farm experts to work expeditiously to increase the share. We will have to set achievable

Govt exploring options to make ration shops modern, viable: Food Secy

Union Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra on Wednesday said the government is exploring various options to make ration shops vibrant, modern and viable by enabling them to offer more products and services apart from running PDS operations. The food ministry on Wednesday held a workshop in the national capital to deliberate upon further initiatives to make fair price shops (FPS) more vibrant and a more financially viable organisation. The secretary stressed that fair price shops should move with time and become "modern outlets" and said these ration shops dealers can start functioning as common service centres (CSCs). Already 60,000 dealers have become CSCs and they could also be banking correspondents. The Centre has written to States to allow ration shop dealers to keep non-PDS items such as FMCG products and many states have already allowed, he said. To reduce the transport cost and save in food subsidy, Chopra said the government has engaged IIT Delhi and World Food Programme for ...

G20 members stressed on raising climate finance to help farmers: Agri secy

The G-20 members stressed on the need to increase climate finance to help farmers take up adaptation measures in order to mitigate the climate change impact on the farm sector, agriculture secretary Manoj Ahuja said on Wednesday. Addressing media on the concluding day of the G20 first Agriculture Deputies' Meeting here, Ahuja said: "Climate finance was one of the issues which was discussed. The members felt that there was a need for an environment for increasing climate financing in terms of financing farmers for adaptation measures." The member countries also suggested that farmers can be incentivised if they are adopting climate friendly farming or green agriculture. One of the ways was carbon credit, he said. The G20 nations also shared their experience on the impact of climate change in agriculture, he added. Climate smart agriculture was one of the four priority areas discussed in the first Agriculture Deputies Meeting. The secretary said: "There was also discussion on the im