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Smallholder Farmers in India: Food Security and Agricultural Policy

R.B. Singh Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific; P. Kumar Professor of Agricultural Economics and FAO consultant, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi; T. Woodhead FAO consultant: strategic aspects of rice-based systems

FAO RAP Publication March 2002

This is a FAO, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific publication.


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>  Food Security Schemes

Synergy between Food Security Act and NREGA

MS Swaminathan

Hindustan Times 2009

This article was published in the Hindustan Times Op-ed section.


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>  Food For Work

Food Security and Nutrition in the Sahel and West Africa

Policy Note, RPCA

OECD November 2008

This note has the main conclusions of the 24th annual meeting of the Food Crisis Prevention Network in the Sahel and West Africa (RPCA).


http//www.oecd.org/sah www.westafricaclub.org

>  health and Nutrition

Knowledge and Innovation for Agricultural Development

Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere and Kristin Davis

IFPRI 2009/03/11

IFPRI Policy Brief


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>  Education and Capacity Building

Voices From Africa

Anuradha Mittal and Melissa Moore (editors)

The Oakland Institute 2009

African farmers and environmentalists speak out against a new green revolution in Africa.


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>  Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change

Women and Rural Employment: Fighting Poverty by Redefining Gender Roles

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Economic and Social Perspectives August 2009

In many countries, women are the main producers of food and crucial for the well-being of rural populations. Their confinement to home-based work frequently prevents them from engaging in paid employment. Expanding women's employment opportunities promises a pathway out of poverty.


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>  Gender and Food

India Biofuels Annual

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service

2009/06/15

India's bio-fuel strategy continues to focus on use of non-food sources for production of bio-fuels: sugar molasses for production of ethanol for blending with gasoline, and non-edible oilseeds for production of bio-diesel for blending with petro-diesel. The government's current target of five percent blending of ethanol with petrol has been partially successful in years of surplus sugar production, but falters when sugar production declines. The commercial production of bio-diesel for blending with petro-diesel has been very small due to inadequate feed stocks.


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>  Energy and Biofuel

Agricultural Support: How is it Measured and What does it Mean?

OECD Public Affairs Division

OECD June 2004

OECD Policy Brief


http//www.oecd.org/publications/Pol_brief

>  Improving Cultivation

Conflict, Food Insecurity, and Globalization

Ellen Messer, Marc. J. Cohen

International Food Policy Research Institute May 2006

We explore how globalization, broadly conceived to include international humanrights norms, humanitarianism, and alternative trade, might influence peaceful and foodsecure outlooks and outcomes. The paper draws on our previous work on conflict as a cause and effect of hunger and also looks at agricultural exports as war commodities. We review studies on the relationships between (1) conflict and food insecurity, (2) conflict and globalization, and (3) globalization and food insecurity. Next, we analyze countrylevel, historical contexts where export crops, such as coffee and cotton, have been implicated in triggering and perpetuating conflict. These cases suggest that it is not export cropping per se, but production and trade structures and food and financial policy contexts that determine peaceful or belligerent outcomes. Export cropping appears to contribute to conflict when fluctuating prices destabilize household and national incomes and when revenues fund hostilities. Also, in these scenarios, governments have not taken steps to progressively realize the right to adequate food or to reduce hunger and poverty. We conclude by exploring implications for agricultural development, trade, and humanrights policies.

Reproduced with permission from the International Food Policy Research Institute.


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http://www.ifpri.org

>  Food Security during Conflict

We support the following initiatives (More info):

Civil Society Organisations for the Committee on World Food Security

The Global Food Security and Nutrition Dialogue





About Global Food Security

There are more than 1.02 billion hungry people in the world
Source:FAO 2010

Providing global food security is one of the principle challenges for humanity in current times. The scale of the challenge is immense. According to an FAO estimate over 1 billion people suffer from hunger. One sixth of all humanity currently goes hungry every day. This is a challenge that has reached unprecedented levels in recent years. There are more people hungry today than at any time since 1970.

Malnutrition has also been growing since the mid-1990s, and in 2008 was affecting approximately 915 million people. These trends are expected to worsen given high food prices, and structural issues relating to the recent downturn in the global economy.

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The work of The Network of European Foundations' Mercator Fund is underpinned by the principle that the global philanthropic community has a vital role to play in promoting and implementing the work necessary to bring about social and political change. The Mercator Fund aims to generate innovative ideas to respond to key global challenges through the development of projects that address core global social issues.
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust is one of the oldest philanthropic institutions in India, and has played a pioneering role in changing the traditional ideas of charity and introducing the concept of philanthropy. Through its grant making, the Trust supports efforts in the development of society, through institutional grants in areas of Education, Health, Arts & Culture, Enhancing Civil Society & Governance and Rural Livelihoods & Communities. Besides institutional grants, the Trust also makes individual grants for education and medical relief.
Nearly 70% of the tribal communities of India reside in central India, concentrated in about 110 districts within the nine central Indian states. The region is endowed with rich natural resources; however, issues such as abject poverty, primitive farming methods, improper use of water resources, naxalism, etc. ensure that this tribal belt lags behind other parts of India. Central India Initiative, one of the flagship initiatives of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, was initiated in 2004, with the basic objective of enhancing tribal livelihoods through a Natural Resource Management (NRM) based approach. Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), a registered organization seeded by the Trust, is the nodal agency for the Central India Initiative.
ICOS is an independent international organisation providing local solutions to tackle new global challenges. Through an innovative combination of research, analysis and project implementation, ICOS examines the root causes of current challenges to achieve measurable and direct results.Through a unique mix of field research, reports, films, events and project implementation, ICOS promotes debate on contemporary issues associated with governance, development, security and public health.